Lasing has been obtained near 2.6 &mgr;m in double‐heterostructure InGaAs/InAlAs diode lasers grown by metalorganic vapor phase epitaxy on InAs substrates. At 80 K threshold currents are in the range of 40–200 mA for lasers of deep mesa geometry. The characteristic temperature of the temperature dependence of the threshold currentT0is 21–23 K and lasing was achieved up to 150 K in a pulsed regime. A blueshift of up to 3.0 nm with increasing current is observed. A blueshift is also observed with increasing temperature, which is attributed to refractive index change due to the strong temperature dependence of the threshold carrier density in narrow gap III–V semiconductor lasers. ©1996 American Institute of Physics.