Anti-Stokes luminescence in heavily doped semiconductors as a mechanism of laser cooling

Abstract

The anti-Stokes luminescence is a mechanism of the optical refrigeration in semiconductor light sources. The heavily doped semiconductors are considered as a material for the laser cooling. The limitation of this mechanism appears to be connected with a transition from the non-degenerate to degenerate occupation. This transition occurs at higher pumping rate (along with the transition to the optical gain and lasing) and at lower temperature. Thus, the limit for the laser cooling can be indicated. The minimal obtainable temperature is about 60-120 K depending on the doping level. The laser cooling of a semiconductor is impeded by the difficulty of extracting the spontaneous emission from a radiating body that is characterized by large angle of the total internal reflection. © 2008 Versita Warsaw and Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg.