Scanned and cw GaSb lasers with longitudinal electron beam pumping

A study was made of the characteristics of GaSb lasers excited by longitudinal electron beam pumping. When a crystal was cooled with liquid nitrogen, the output power reached 1.1 W (efficiency ≈3.3%) in a laser pumped by a scanning beam and 5 mW (efficiency ≈1.3%) in a cw laser. Continuous tuning of the emission wavelength in the range 1.57–1.65 μ was achieved in the cw laser.