Molecular beam epitaxial growth of continuous-wave (cw) midinfrared IV-VI vertical-cavity surface-emitting laser structures is presented. From the structures, based on high-finesse microcavities and containing PbSe as active medium, optically pumped cw laser emission is observed at very long wavelengths between 7.9 and 6.7 μ m. Stimulated emission is found up to temperatures of 100K. We achieved internal threshold pump intensities below 25W/cm(2), which is two orders of magnitude smaller than those reported so far. The observed line width of the laser emission is only 0.6nm, with a strong line width narrowing above threshold as compared to the line width of the cavity resonance. Cw Output powers are up to 4.8 mW. © 2004 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.