Monolithic beam combined quantum cascade laser arrays with integrated arrayed waveguide gratings.

Quantum cascade lasers (QCLs) are ubiquitous mid-infrared sources owing to their flexible designs and compact footprints. Manufacturing multiwavelength QCL chips with high power levels and good beam quality is highly desirable for many applications. In this study, we demonstrate an λ ∼ 4.

High-efficiency mid-infrared InGaAs/InP arrayed waveguide gratings.

Photonic integrated circuits and mid-infrared quantum cascade lasers have attracted significant attention over the years because of the numerous applications enabled by these compact semiconductor chips. In this paper, we demonstrate low loss passive waveguides and highly efficient arrayed waveguide gratings that can be used, for example, to beam combine infrared (IR) laser arrays. The waveguide structure used consists of an InGaAs core and InP cladding layers.

Low-dissipation 7.4-µm single-mode quantum cascade lasers without epitaxial regrowth.

We report continuous-wave operation of single-mode quantum cascade (QC) lasers emitting near 7.4 µm with threshold power consumption below 1 W at temperatures up to 40 °C. The lasers were fabricated with narrow, plasma-etched waveguides and distributed-feedback sidewall gratings clad with sputtered aluminum nitride.

Widely tunable mid-infrared quantum cascade lasers using sampled grating reflectors.

We demonstrate a three-section, electrically pulsed quantum cascade laser which consists of a Fabry-Pérot section placed between two sampled grating distributed Bragg reflectors. The device is current-tuned between ten single modes spanning a range of 0.46 μm (63 cm(-1)), from 8.

Quantum cascade laser master-oscillator power-amplifier with 1.5 W output power at 300 K.

We report quantum cascade laser (QCL) master-oscillator power-amplifiers (MOPAs) at 300 K reaching output power of 1.5 W for tapered devices and 0.9 W for untapered devices.

Whispering-gallery mode resonators for highly unidirectional laser action.

Optical microcavities can be designed to take advantage of total internal reflection, which results in resonators supporting whispering-gallery modes (WGMs) with a high-quality factor (Q factor). One of the crucial problems of these devices for practical applications such as designing microcavity lasers, however, is that their emission is nondirectional due to their radial symmetry, in addition to their inefficient power output coupling. Here we report the design of elliptical resonators with a wavelength-size notch at the boundary, which support in-plane highly unidirectional laser emission from WGMs.

Gain competition in dual wavelength quantum cascade lasers.

We investigated dual wavelength mid-infrared quantum cascade lasers based on heterogeneous cascades. We found that due to gain competition laser action tends to start in higher order lateral modes. The mid-infrared mode with the lower threshold current reduces population inversion for the second laser with the higher threshold current due to stimulated emission.

Activation energy study of electron transport in high performance short wavelengths quantum cascade lasers.

We present a method to study current paths through quantum cascade lasers (QCLs). The temperature dependence of the current is measured at a fixed voltage. At low temperatures we find activation energies that correspond to the energy difference between the injector ground state and the upper laser level.

Beam combining of quantum cascade laser arrays.

Wavelength beam combining was used to co-propagate beams from 28 elements in an array of distributed-feedback quantum cascade lasers (DFB-QCLs). The beam-quality product of the array, defined as the product of near-field spot size and far-field divergence for the entire array, was improved by a factor of 21 by using wavelength beam combining. To demonstrate the applicability of wavelength beam combined DFB-QCL arrays for remote sensing, we obtained the absorption spectrum of isopropanol at a distance of 6 m from the laser array.

Quantum cascade lasers with integrated plasmonic antenna-array collimators.

We demonstrated in simulations and experiments that by defining a properly designed two-dimensional metallic aperture-grating structure on the facet of quantum cascade lasers, a small beam divergence angle can be achieved in directions both perpendicular and parallel to the laser waveguide layers (denoted as theta perpendicular and theta parallel, respectively). Beam divergence angles as small as theta perpendicular=2.7 degrees and theta parallel=3.

Near-field imaging of quantum cascade laser transverse modes.

We report near field imaging of the transverse lasing modes of quantum cascade lasers. A mid-infrared apertureless near-field scanning optical microscope was used to characterize the modes on the laser facet. A very stable mode pattern corresponding to a TM(00) mode was observed as function of increasing driving current for a narrow active region quantum cascade laser.

Intra-cavity absorption spectroscopy with narrow-ridge microfluidic quantum cascade lasers.

We demonstrate microfluidic laser intra-cavity absorption spectroscopy with mid-infrared lambda approximately 9mum quantum cascade lasers. A deepetched narrow ridge waveguide laser is placed in a microfluidic chamber. The evanescent tails of the laser mode penetrate into a liquid on both sides of the ridge.