We present the direct observation of four-wave mixing over a detuning range of more than 3 THz in an InGaAs/AlInAs strain-compensated quantum cascade laser (QCL) amplifier emitting at 4.3 lm by simultaneous injection of a single mode QCL and a broadly tunable source. From its intensity, we determine a v ð3Þ of 0.9 Â 10 À15 m 2 V À2 , in good agreement with transport model simulations based on the density matrix approach. This four-wave-mixing mechanism is an important driving factor in mode proliferation occurring in connection with the recent demonstration of comb generation in broadband QCLs. V

Mid-infrared spectroscopy is a sensitive and selective technique for probing molecules in the gas or liquid phase. Investigating chemical reactions in bio-medical applications such as drug production is recently gaining particular interest. However, monitoring dynamic processes in liquids is commonly limited to bulky systems and thus requires time-consuming offline analytics. In this work, we show a next-generation, fully-integrated and robust chip-scale sensor for online measurements of molecule dynamics in a liquid solution. Our fingertip-sized device utilizes quantum cascade technology, combining the emitter, sensing section and detector on a single chip. This enables real-time measurements probing only microliter amounts of analyte in an in situ configuration. We demonstrate time-resolved device operation by analyzing temperature-induced conformational changes of the model protein bovine serum albumin in heavy water. Quantitative measurements reveal excellent performance characteristics in terms of sensor linearity, wide coverage of concentrations, extending from 0.075 mg ml−1 to 92 mg ml−1 and a 55-times higher absorbance than state-of-the-art bulky and offline reference systems.

We present the electrical and optical characterization and theoretical modeling of the transient behavior of regular 4.5-μm single-mode emitting distributed feedback (DFB) quantum cascade lasers (QCLs). Low residual capacitance together with a high-frequency optimized three-terminal coplanar waveguide configuration leads to modulation frequencies up to 23.5 GHz (optical) and 26.5 GHz (electrical), respectively. A maximum 3-dB cut-off value of 6.6 GHz in a microwave rectification scheme is obtained, with a significant increase in electrical modulation bandwidth when increasing the DC-current for the entire current range of the devices. Optical measurements by means of FTIR-spectroscopy and a heterodyne beating experiment reveal the presence of a resonance peak, due to coupling of the lasing DFB- with its neighboring below-threshold Fabry-Pérot-(FP-)mode, when modulating around the cavity roundtrip frequency. This resonance is modeled by a 2-mode Maxwell-Bloch formalism. It enhances only one sideband and consequently leads to the first experimental observation of the single-sideband regime in such kind of devices.

Optical frequency combs generated by quantum cascade lasers have recently been demonstrated in the mid and far infrared, but a detailed analysis of the possibility of a fine control of the emission to use them for high-resolution spectroscopy and metrology applications is still missing. In this manuscript the attempt of frequency stabilizing a mid-infrared quantum cascade laser comb (QCL-comb) against a metrological mid-infrared intracavity-difference-frequency-generated comb through a single phase-locking chain acting on the driving current is presented. Following a brief derivation, simple relations between the QCL-comb frequency parameters and optical quantities such as the refractive index have been found and used to observe how the locking affects the physics of the system. The conclusion is that the current locking essentially acts on the effective refractive index to reduce the offset fluctuations (common noise), but does not sensitively affect the group refractive index and the mode spacing. Nonetheless, the overall single QCL-comb tooth linewidth is reduced from 500 kHz down to values ranging from 1 to 23 kHz on a 40 ms time scale.

Using a transport model based on the density matrix formalism, a fully automatized technique to design quantum cascade structures in the mid-infrared is presented that implements a genetic algorithm where the wallplug efficiency has been used as merit factor. Starting from a reference design, the model converges after few generations on an optimized design that presents a better carrier injection in the upper lasing state. Both the designs have been fabricated using buried heterostructure process and the optimized design shows a pronounced increase in the laser operation range and higher output powers. In good agreement with the simulations, the laser efficiency increases from 5% to 12%.