Patent ID: 8284805

Claim:
A semiconductor gain medium in an electrically pumped broadly tunable mid-infrared laser, the semiconductor gain medium comprising: doped quantum confined host material (DQCH) structured to have characteristic spatial dimension of the confinement tuned to enable overlap of discrete levels of the host and impurity ions for efficient energy transfer from separated host carriers to the impurity, and lasing in mid-infrared range of wavelengths, wherein: said DQCH material has the formula TM:MeZ and/or MeX 2 Z 4 , wherein Me is selected from the group consisting of Zn, Cd, Ca, Mg, Sr, Ba, Hg, Pb, Cu, Al, Ga, In; Z is selected from the group consisting of S, Se, Te, O, N, P, As, Sb and their mixtures; X being selected from the group consisting of Ga, In, and Al; and TM is selected from the group consisting from V, Cr, Mn, Fe, Co, and Ni.