We present high-power single-spatial mode electrically pumped GaSb-based superluminescent diodes (SLDs) operating in the 1.95 to 2.45 μm wavelength range in continuous-wave (CW). MBE grown GaSb-based heterostructures were fabricated into single-angled facet ridge-waveguide devices that demonstrate more than 40 mW CW output power at 2.05 μm, to >5 mW at 2.40 μm at room-temperature. We integrated these SLDs into an external cavity (Littrow configuration) as gain chips and achieved single-mode CW lasing with maximum output powers exceeding 18 mW. An extremely wide tuning range of 120 nm per chip with side-mode-suppression-ratios >25 dB was demonstrated while maintaining optical output power level above 3 mW across the entire tuning range.

Infrared spectral range between 1.7 and 2.5 µm is of particular interest for biomedical sensing applications due to the presence of first overtone C-H stretch and a combination of stretch and bending vibrations of C-H, N-H, and O-H bonds. These vibrations are molecule specific and can be used to selectively sense important biomolecules such as glucose, lactate, urea, ammonia, serum albumin, etc. In this paper, we review recent developments of swept-wavelength lasers based on GaSb type-I gain-chip technology, their key performance parameters for spectroscopy applications and provide experimental data on spectroscopic sensing of the key biomolecules both in synthetic solutions as well as whole blood.

The infrared spectral region beyond 1.7 μm is of utmost interest for biomedical applications due to strong overtone and combination absorption bands in a variety of important biomolecules such as lactates, urea, glucose, albumin, etc. In this article, we report on recent progress in widely tunable swept-wavelength lasers based on type-I GaSb gain-chip technology, setting a new state-of-the-art in the 1.7-2.5 μm range laser sources. We provide an application example for the spectroscopic sensing of several biomolecules in a cuvette as well as an experimental demonstration of a non-invasive in-vivo sensing of human serum albumin through the skin.

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Terahertz (THz) pulse generation from p-InAs, p-InSb, and n-InSb epitaxial layers are investigated using 1.55-μm wavelength femtosecond laser pulses for photoexcitation. The samples are of (111) crystallographic orientation resulting in anisotropic photoconductivity. Experiments have shown that THz generation in InAs is mainly due to anisotropic photocurrent in the surface electric field while a dominant mechanism in InSb is optical rectification. At high optical excitation fluencies, InSb is more efficient than p-InAs. In the presence of an external magnetic field, (111) InSb has exhibited promising viability as an alternative to the photoconductive antenna emitter in a THz time-domain-spectroscopy (THz-TDS) system.