We demonstrate a novel waveguide design for dispersion compensation in short wavelength quantum cascade lasers for frequency comb operation. The addition of two highly doped InP plasmon layers, above and below the active region, and the precise control of the distance between them and their dimensions, allows to engineer waveguide structures with low group velocity dispersion around any central wavelength between 4 μm and 6 μm, while keeping the optical losses low. Based on this design, we show high-performance frequency comb operation at 5.3 μm that exhibits up to 350 mW of output power, and operates in coherent comb mode up to 50ºC with a spectral width of ~50 cm-1.
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