Optically pumped green‐emitting ZnSe‐based laser heterostructures of optimized design have been grown by molecular‐beam epitaxy and studied. The structures containing five electronically‐coupled stacked CdSe quantum dot (QD) sheets demonstrate the minimum threshold power density of 2.2 kW/cm2 and the maximum external quantum efficiency of ∼ 50%. Internal laser characteristics were determined by measuring the differential laser efficiency and laser threshold of a series of samples with different cavity lengths. The characteristic gain and internal quantum efficiency of the structures have been shown to reach the values as high as ΓG0 = 114 cm‐1 and ηi = 65.4%, while the transparency threshold and internal losses are evaluated as low as IT = 1.22 kW/cm2 and αi = 2.55 cm‐1, respectively. (© 2010 WILEY‐VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim)