This dissertation describes experiments undertaken to develop techniques required to develop IV-VI lasers grown on silicon. A review of the IV-VI materials system, diode laser structures, recent IV-VI laser results, epitaxial growth techniques, and thermal modeling results introduces the reader to the structures and materials to be discussed. Designs for three different IV-VI laser structures on silicon follow. Three types of experimental structures are investigated next: those grown on BaF\sb2 substrates by liquid phase epitaxy (LPE), those grown on silicon by molecular phase epitaxy (MBE), and those grown on silicon by a combination of MBE and LPE. The author's recommendations for future work sum up the body of the text. Five appendices are included to document procedures (BaF\sb2 chemical mechanical polishing and IV-VI material preparation for LPE), to provide supplementary material (cleaving jig preparation for epitaxial lift-off of IV-VI layers and the effects of oxygen adsorption upon IV-VI materials), and to act as a repository for program code generated during this project (six programs and their supporting code for acquiring, displaying, and converting measurement data).

Fabrication of commercially competitive IV-VI tunable diode lasers has been hampered by lack of suitable substrates. Lasers grown on IV-VI materials themselves are acceptable for low temperature operation, but poor substrate thermal conductivity limits their operation to the cryogenic regime. An alternative substrate material, BaF$\sb2, $ is a promising alternative, but available substrates are often of questionable crystalline quality. High quality silicon, however, is readily available and may be used to grow epitaxial BaF\sb2. This BaF\sb2 epilayer may then be used as a substrate for further growth of IV-VI diode lasers. In addition, the water solubility of BaF\sb2 permits lift-off of the laser structures and remounting on a more electrically and thermally accommodating substrate--such as copper.