Broadly wavelength-tunable external cavity, mid-infrared quantum cascade lasers

Luo, Guoping; Peng, Chuan; Le, H. Q.; Pei, S. S.; Lü, Hao; Hwang, W.-Y.; Ishaug, B.; Zheng, Jun

doi:10.1109/3.998621

Cited by 50 publications

(8 citation statements)

References 19 publications

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“…Each type of EC confi guration has its special advantage, which makes it best suitable for a certain type of applications. General performance and wavelength tuning behavior of QC lasers in Littrow and Littman-Metcalf cavity confi gurations were studied in detail in Guipeng ( 2002 ), demonstrating similar wavelength tuning properties for both confi gurations. For trace gas detection, Littrow confi gured external cavity quantum-cascade laser (EC-QCL) systems (Lewicki et al ., 2007b ;Wysocki et al ., 2008 ;Karpf and Rao 2009 ;Scherer et al ., 2009 ;Tsai and Wysocki 2010 ;Spagnolo et al ., 2010 ) are more often employed than Littman-Metcalf systems (Phillips et al ., 2007 ).…”

Section: External Cavity Quantum-cascade Lasers (Ec-qcl)mentioning

confidence: 96%

Tunable mid-infrared laser absorption spectroscopy

Tittel

Lewicki

2013

Semiconductor Lasers

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Section: External Cavity Quantum-cascade Lasers (Ec-qcl)mentioning

confidence: 96%

Tunable mid-infrared laser absorption spectroscopy

Tittel

Lewicki

2013

Semiconductor Lasers

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“…Initial studies of tunable externalcavity QC lasers achieved tunability with earlier QC devices that required a degree of cryogenic cooling to operate in cw mode. 9,13 As QC device technology has progressed, removing the need for space-intrusive cryostats, more sophisticated tuning mechanisms have been developed that allow phasecontinuous, or mode-hop-free (MHF), tuning. 10 These efforts have been consolidated into a robust commercial package 14 that operates with room temperature QC devices and allows MHF tuning over 100 cm -1 , as determined by scanning the tuning mechanism over its mechanical range while monitoring the single-mode lasing wavelength with a FTIR spectrometer.…”

Section: Broad Tuning As a Function Of Wavelengthmentioning

confidence: 99%

Utilizing broad gain bandwidth in quantum cascade devices

et al. 2010

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The utilization of the broad gain bandwidth available from quantum cascade (QC) devices is considered. The performance of homogeneous and heterogeneous QC gain media is explored in an externalcavity configuration. Paradigms for realizing fixed wavelength or broad tuning performance of QC devices are considered. C 2010 Society of PhotoOptical Instrumentation Engineers. IntroductionQuantum cascade (QC) devices have become the standard gain media for lasers where high power, room-temperature operation, and continuous wavelength coverage are required in the midinfrared region of 3 to 12 μm. Recently, a tuning range of 432 cm -1 was demonstrated 1 for a QC device run in external-cavity mode. Such a broad gain bandwidth is comparable to results achieved with other semiconductor gain media: For example, 596 cm -1 of tuning has been demonstrated in near-IR diodes, 2 and 444 cm -1 in cryogenically cooled mid-IR Pb-salt diodes. 3 Utilizing the broad gain bandwidth of QC devices is an important consideration in the commercialization of QC-based lasers.Broad gain bandwidth in a gain medium offers potential advantages in the manufacture of lasers. For fixedwavelength lasers, a larger offering of wavelengths can be made without having to create multiple gain media. 4 Broad gain bandwidth can be converted into tuning range to access wider spectral ranges. 5 In both cases, however, a method is needed to restrict the laser operation to a single mode or subset of modes that are useful for the application of interest.Distributed feedback (DFB) structures have been integrated into the QC waveguide to restrict lasing to a narrow wavelength range. 6 This approach has the advantage that an extremely compact single-mode laser can be made with narrow linewidth and low frequency noise. 7 DFB lasers can be used in an intrapulse mode to perform spectroscopy of rotationally resolved gas molecules over a few inverse centimeters. 8 Ultimately, however, DFB QC lasers can only realize broader tuning by changing temperature, which limits their effective tuning range to less than 20 cm -1 , not nearly enough to utilize the full gain bandwidth available in QC devices. Moreover, from a manufacturing standpoint, different DFB QC devices have to be stocked for each fixed wavelength, negating the advantage of broad gain bandwidth in manufacturing.An alternative method, which allows for manufacturing settability of wavelength and broad tuning if required, is an external-cavity configuration. External-cavity QC lasers have been successfully employed to realize both narrow linewidth and broad tuning. 9, 10 A typical external cavity arrangement with grating feedback in Littrow configuration is shown in

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“…A tuning range of ∼65 and ∼88 nm was achieved at 80 K for gain chips emitting at 4.5 and 5.1 μm, respectively. The same group reported an improved design of EC-QCLs in the following year [68]. With the deposition of anti-reflection (AR) coating on one chip facet, a tuning range of 140 nm (54 cm −1 ) and 127 nm (49 cm −1 ) was achieved at the temperatures of 80 and 243 K, respectively.…”

Section: Pulsed External Cavity Mid-infrared Qclsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Broadly tunable single-mode mid-infrared quantum cascade lasers

Meng

Wang

2015

J. Opt.

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In this paper, we review the recent progress in broadly tunable single-mode mid-infrared quantum cascade lasers (QCLs). With a brief introduction on various applications of broadly tunable single-mode mid-infrared QCLs, we first categorize these lasers based on their configurations and tuning schemes. Then recent progress in each scheme is investigated, together with detailed discussions. Furthermore, the pros and cons of different approaches are compared, and the opportunities and challenges for future developments from our point of view are listed. Last but not least, potential new directions and prospects for obtaining broadly tunable single-mode characteristics are also provided. It is foreseeable that, with the development of high performance broadly tunable single-mode mid-infrared QCLs, more applications could be exploited in the near future with new phenomena to be discovered.

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Broadly wavelength-tunable external cavity, mid-infrared quantum cascade lasers

Cited by 50 publications

References 19 publications

Tunable mid-infrared laser absorption spectroscopy

Tunable mid-infrared laser absorption spectroscopy

Utilizing broad gain bandwidth in quantum cascade devices

Broadly tunable single-mode mid-infrared quantum cascade lasers

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