The growth by molecular-beam epitaxy of novel electrically pumped type-II multi-quantum well (MQW) Sb-based laser diodes in which only the holes are quantum confined was studied. These laser structures were fabricated on (0 0 1) GaSb substrates. In the MQW region, radiative recombinations originate from InGaSb hole wells embedded in InGaAsSb barriers lattice matched to GaSb. Two different laser structures were developed. The first one exhibited a well/barrier periodicity that was too short, which led to a laser emission near 2.65 mu m originating from the waveguide rather than from the wells. With an improved well/barrier periodicity, the second structure exhibited laser emission up to 243 K at 2.93 mu m in the pulsed regime (200 ns, 5 kHz). In this case, the laser photons were effectively produced by the hole-well active region. A minimum threshold of about 12.8 kA/cm(2) at 80 K combined with a T-o around 70 K have been measured from this second structure. (c) 2006 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.