The growth conditions and the operation of a diode-pumped AlGaAsSb/GaInAsSb type-I quantum-well vertical cavity surface emitting laser emitting near 2.3 mum in an external cavity configuration are reported. The epitaxial structure was grown in two steps on a GaSb substrate by molecular beam epitaxy. It is made of a GaSb/AlAsSb Bragg reflector, a GaInAsSb/AlGaAsSb multi quantum-well active region and an AlAsSb heatspreader layer. A TEM00 low-divergence laser continuous wave mode operation was demonstrated from 277K up to 350K. A characteristic temperature To as high as 74 K was measured just below 300 K. Threshold incident pump power as low as 600 W/cm(2) at 277 K and a maximum output power of 8.5 mW at 288 K was observed. (C) 2004 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.