High-power tunable external cavity quantum cascade laser in the 5-11 micron regime

Pushkarsky, Michael B.; Weida, Miles J.; Day, Timothy; Arnone, David; Pritchett, R.L.; Caffey, David; Crivello, Sam

doi:10.1117/12.777298

Cited by 15 publications

(13 citation statements)

References 8 publications

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“…High performance of the Cherenkov DFG-QCL chips reported here allowed us to demonstrate, for the first time, an EC DFG-QCL system, which is similar in mechanical design and operation to highly successful widely tunable mid-infrared EC QCL systems 15,25 . A schematic of the setup is shown in Fig.…”

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 79%

Broadly tunable terahertz generation in mid-infrared quantum cascade lasers

et al. 2013

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Room temperature, broadly tunable, electrically pumped semiconductor sources in the terahertz spectral range, similar in operation simplicity to diode lasers, are highly desired for applications. An emerging technology in this area are sources based on intracavity difference-frequency generation in dual-wavelength mid-infrared quantum cascade lasers. Here we report terahertz quantum cascade laser sources based on an optimized non-collinear Cherenkov difference-frequency generation scheme that demonstrates dramatic improvements in performance. Devices emitting at 4 THz display a mid-infrared-to-terahertz conversion efficiency in excess of 0.6 mW W À 2 and provide nearly 0.12 mW of peak power output. Devices emitting at 2 and 3 THz fabricated on the same chip display 0.09 and 0.4 mW W À 2 conversion efficiencies at room temperature, respectively. High terahertzgeneration efficiency and relaxed phase-matching conditions offered by the Cherenkov scheme allowed us to demonstrate, for the first time, an external-cavity terahertz quantum cascade laser source tunable between 1.70 and 5.25 THz.

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Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 79%

Broadly tunable terahertz generation in mid-infrared quantum cascade lasers

et al. 2013

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“…With the advent of Quantum Cascade Lasers (QCLs) spectroscopy has improved as the traditional broadband light sources like the globar in the FTIR could be replaced with a spatially coherent laser source yielding a high power density [5]. While tunable MIR QCLs operating at several wavelengths have been developed [6], a single QCL is still a laser operating at a narrow spectral range, so in order to have the spectral range offered by the globar, multiple expensive QCLs operating at different wavelengths need to be combined together. Supercontinuum sources combine all features of a broadband and spatially coherent source having a high intensity [7].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Thulium pumped mid-infrared 09–9μm supercontinuum generation in concatenated fluoride and chalcogenide glass fibers

Kubat¹,

Petersen²,

Møller³

et al. 2014

Opt. Express

131

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“…On the contrary, mode-hops in QCLs have been rarely studied as such, even though manufacturers and end-users are usually aware of their existence [16]. Generally speaking, these mode hops occur because of the combination of thermal effects and the relatively low selectivity of the diffraction grating in Littrow configuration.…”

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 93%

“…It is linearly polarized in the vertical plane. Some information on this kind of sources is given in [16]. In this study it is externally triggered to emit 520 ns-long pulses at 100 kHz, at a set wavelength of 1280 cm -1 (7.81 µm) where it reaches a maximum peak power of 530 mW.…”

Section: Experimental Set-upmentioning

confidence: 99%

Time-resolved spectral characterization of a pulsed external-cavity quantum cascade laser

et al. 2012

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Spectrally tunable narrow-linewidth mid-infrared sources are used in a variety of spectrometric optical systems for detection, identification, and/or quantification of chemical species. However, in the pulsed regime they often display a varying spectrum in time, either from shot-to-shot or during the pulse itself, with consequences on the measurement accuracy, resolution, and repeatability. This is, for instance, the case of pulsed quantum cascade lasers (QCL), mainly because of strong transient thermal effects in the optical waveguide. Unfortunately, little information has been published on this subject because mid-infrared time-resolved spectrometers are extremely scarce. In this paper, we explain how this can be circumvented by using time-gated frequency upconversion in a nonlinear crystal. We apply this principle to characterize a pulsed external cavity QCL (EC-QCL) at 7.8 µm, using AgGaS 2 as the nonlinear crystal and a Q-switched Nd:YAG laser as the pump source. The upconverted near infrared spectrum is conveniently analyzed with a high resolution lambdameter and an optical spectrum analyzer. We evidence frequency chirp at an average rate of -50 MHz/ns and mode hops spanning 15 GHz for the EC-QCL. These results are compared to published data.

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High-power tunable external cavity quantum cascade laser in the 5-11 micron regime

Cited by 15 publications

References 8 publications

Broadly tunable terahertz generation in mid-infrared quantum cascade lasers

Broadly tunable terahertz generation in mid-infrared quantum cascade lasers

Thulium pumped mid-infrared 09–9μm supercontinuum generation in concatenated fluoride and chalcogenide glass fibers

Time-resolved spectral characterization of a pulsed external-cavity quantum cascade laser

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