Semiconductor lasers operating in the 2.0-3.0 µm spectral range are of particular interest for spectroscopy and atmospheric studies. In this spectral window, greenhouse gases and atmospheric tracers such as CO2, 13CO2, H2O, and HDO exhibit far stronger infrared absorption than in the near-infrared regimes that are commonly targeted by state-of-the-art instruments. Till very recently, the output power of the available semiconductor lasers in this range was limited to only a few milliwatts; a road block in the development of some extremely sensitive instrument architectures. We have recently fabricated semiconductor lasers with an order of magnitude higher output power than the state-of-the-art. In this talk we will present our fabrication approach that has resulted in this superior performance.