Broadband continuous-wave tuning of external cavity anticrossed dual-upper-state quantum cascade lasers

A wide wavelength tuning of an external cavity quantum-cascade (QC) laser based on the anticrossed dual-upper-state to multiple-lower-state design is demonstrated in continuous wave (cw) operation at room temperature. The tuning ranges of 321 cm-1 (Δλ/λ~22%) in pulsed operation and 248 cm-1 (Δλ/λ~17%) in cw operation are achieved, despite employment of the active region with translational symmetry. The present tuning range in cw operation substantially exceeds the values obtained with the QC lasers based on conventional broadband active region designs. In addition, the continuous, single mode tuning is realized with its widely homogeneous gain spectrum.

[1]  Jérôme Faist,et al.  External cavity quantum cascade laser , 2010 .

[2]  J. Faist,et al.  Quantum Cascade Laser , 1994, Science.

[3]  Peng Chuan.  Grating-Tuned External-Cavity Quantum Cascade Semiconductor Lasers , 2003 .

[4]  Naota Akikusa,et al.  Broadband Tuning of External Cavity Dual-Upper-State Quantum-Cascade Lasers in Continuous Wave Operation , 2011 .

[5]  E. Gini,et al.  Heterogeneous High-Performance Quantum-Cascade Laser Sources for Broad-Band Tuning , 2008, IEEE Journal of Quantum Electronics.

[6]  K. Fujita,et al.  Theory of the Intrinsic Linewidth of Quantum-Cascade Lasers: Hidden Reason for the Narrow Linewidth and Line-Broadening by Thermal Photons , 2008, IEEE Journal of Quantum Electronics.

[7]  Tadataka Edamura,et al.  High-performance quantum cascade lasers with wide electroluminescence (∼600 cm−1), operating in continuous-wave above 100 °C , 2011 .

[8]  Carlo Sirtori,et al.  Distributed feedback quantum cascade lasers , 1997 .

[9]  Marcella Giovannini,et al.  Room-temperature continuous-wave operation of an external-cavity quantum cascade laser. , 2007, Optics letters.

[10]  M. Beck,et al.  Far infrared quantum-cascade lasers based on a bound-to-continuum transition , 2001, Conference on Lasers and Electro-Optics, 2003. CLEO '03..

[11]  Tadataka Edamura,et al.  High-performance, homogeneous broad-gain quantum cascade lasers based on dual-upper-state design , 2010 .

[12]  Tadataka Edamura,et al.  Broad-gain (Δλ/λ0, 2011, Optics express.

[13]  Claire F. Gmachl,et al.  Broadband quantum cascade laser gain medium based on a “continuum-to-bound” active region design , 2010 .

[14]  Hirofumi Kan,et al.  Quantum cascade lasers based on single phonon-continuum depopulation structures , 2009, OPTO.

[15]  M A Crayton,et al.  Room temperature. , 1980, Science.

[16]  David Jones.  High performance , 1989, Nature.