Résumé
We present the design, technology and performances of a tunable Sb-based diode-pumped type-I quantum-well vertical-external-cavity surface-emitting lasers emitting at 2.7 mu m. The half VCSEL structure was grown by MBE with quantum-well growth temperature of 440 degrees C. The sample was thermally annealed to optimize the QW gain design. We report on room-temperature continuous-wave laser with 0.17mW output power and low threshold incident pump intensity of 0.7kW/cm(2) while pumping at 830nm with a commercial diode laser. The external cavity provides a circular TEM00 beam with a low divergence of 3.6 degrees. The short mm-long optical cavity laser exhibits tunable single frequency operation, with a side mode suppression ratio >> 23 dB, a linewidth << 4GHz and a linear light polarization. Thermal and optical properties are studied.