Study of pumping conditions on output of optically pumped interband cascade lasers.

This thesis presents the results of optically pumping two interband cascade laser (ICL) semiconductor samples and measuring both their output power and spectral data. The samples were prepared by the Naval Research Laboratory using molecular beam epitaxy. These samples were pumped with a Nd:YAG laser in conjunction with a optical parametric oscillator that allowed for tunable pump beam wavelength. The peak output power from the samples was plotted versus pump intensity to create light-light curves. A novelty of this work was that the ICLs were optically pumped with a range of pump wavelengths from 1800 nm to 1950 nm. Additionally, the temperature of the sample was varied from 80 K to 220 K. The temperature dependence of threshold pump intensity as well as slope efficiency of ICL semiconductor samples is discussed. Also, how the spectral output of the samples change with temperature and pump wavelength is presented, particularly with respect to the effect of apply a graphene monolayer top contact to the ICL surface.