Quantum cascade lasers articles within Nature Photonics

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  • News & Views |

    The direct generation of femtosecond pulses from an 8-μm quantum cascade laser could prove transformative for sensing and spectroscopy.

    • Sukhdeep Dhillon

  • Article |

    Near-transform-limited 630 fs pulses with 4.5 W of peak power are generated by compensating the dispersion of a quantum cascade laser emitting around 8 μm. Their temporal nature is assessed by a new method called asynchronous upconversion sampling.

    • Philipp Täschler
    • , Mathieu Bertrand
    •  & Jérôme Faist

  • News & Views |

    The journey to realize a terahertz quantum cascade laser that operates at room temperature has taken a jump forward with news of a device that operates at –23 °C, within the reach of Peltier coolers.

    • Carlo Sirtori

  • News & Views |

    A wavelength-size laser cavity with a movable end mirror enables single-mode operation and 25% fractional tuning of a terahertz quantum cascade laser.

    • Nathan Jukam

  • Article |

    The combined technique of dual-comb multi-heterodyne detection and Fourier-transform analysis allows simultaneous acquisition and monitoring of the phase pattern of a generic frequency comb demonstrating the high degree of coherence of the emission of two quantum cascade laser frequency combs.

    • Francesco Cappelli
    • , Luigi Consolino
    •  & Saverio Bartalini

  • Letter |

    Quantum cascade laser frequency combs are coherently locked to an external radio-frequency source even in extremely high-feedback conditions. The internal phase-locking mechanism and the possibility of all-electric stabilization are investigated.

    • Johannes Hillbrand
    • , Aaron Maxwell Andrews
    •  & Benedikt Schwarz

  • Article |

    Five wire lasers are phase-locked by a strong coupling and form a coupled cavity. The lasing frequency is around 3.8 THz and is continuously tunable by 10 GHz. A continuous-wave output power of 50–90 mW and beam divergence of ∼10° are achieved.

    • Ali Khalatpour
    • , John L. Reno
    •  & Qing Hu

  • Letter |

    Self-starting harmonic frequency comb generation with a THz repetition rate in a quantum cascade laser is demonstrated. The mode spacing uniformity is verified to within 5 × 10−12 parts of the central frequency. The findings extend the range of applications of quantum cascade laser frequency combs.

    • Dmitry Kazakov
    • , Marco Piccardo
    •  & Federico Capasso

  • Letter |

    A unidirectional photonic wire laser has been developed by integrating reflectors into terahertz quantum cascade lasers. The transverse dimension is much smaller than the lasing wavelength (80 μm). A record wall-plug power efficiency of 1% is achieved.

    • Ali Khalatpour
    • , John L. Reno
    •  & Qing Hu

  • Article |

    Two-dimensional arrays of short-cavity surface-emitting THz quantum cascade lasers are phase-locked to each other via mutual coupling. A directive beam on the order of 10° divergence and a maximum slope efficiency of 450 mW A−1 is achieved.

    • Tsung-Yu Kao
    • , John L. Reno
    •  & Qing Hu

  • Research Highlights |

    • Noriaki Horiuchi

  • Article |

    A 10 μm quantum cascade laser is phase-locked to a remote ultrastable laser referenced to primary frequency standards using an optical frequency comb. The obtained relative stability of 2 × 10−15 is record-breaking in the mid-infrared region.

    • Bérengère Argence
    • , Bruno Chanteau
    •  & Anne Amy-Klein

  • Article |

    The authors report a semiconductor injection laser with a continuous wave emission spanning more than one octave, from 1.64 THz to 3.35 THz, with optical powers in the milliwatt range and more than 80 modes above threshold.

    • Markus Rösch
    • , Giacomo Scalari
    •  & Jérôme Faist

  • News & Views |

    Frequency combs based on quantum cascade lasers are a thriving topic of research and offer the attractive vision of more compact and higher performance comb systems for spectroscopy or metrology.

    • Noriaki Horiuchi

  • Editorial |

    Twenty years ago, researchers at Bell Labs in the USA stunned the optics world by reporting a new type of semiconductor laser — the quantum cascade laser. This laser transformed mid- and far-infrared photonics.

  • Article |

    Frequency combs based on terahertz quantum cascade lasers, which combine the high power of lasers with the broadband capabilities of pulsed sources, are demonstrated. The frequency combs generate 5 mW of terahertz power covering a frequency range of almost 500 GHz and produce more than 70 lines at 3.5 THz.

    • David Burghoff
    • , Tsung-Yu Kao
    •  & Qing Hu

  • Review Article |

    This article reviews state-of-the-art engineering of the spectral and spatial emission properties of terahertz quantum cascade lasers by focusing on three key factors: photonic structures for extracting and confining light in a cavity, an upconversion technique based on nonlinear intracavity mixing and a frequency stabilisation technique based on femtosecond-laser combs.

    • Carlo Sirtori
    • , Stefano Barbieri
    •  & Raffaele Colombelli

  • Letter |

    Researchers provide experimental evidence of intrinsic linewidths approaching the quantum limit in a GaAs/AlGaAs quantum cascade laser emitting at 2.5 THz. Despite the expected dominant broadening effect induced by thermal photons, the measured intrinsic linewidth is 90 Hz — even narrower than that of a semiconductor laser working at significantly shorter wavelengths.

    • Miriam S. Vitiello
    • , Luigi Consolino
    •  & Paolo De Natale

  • Letter |

    Researchers demonstrate all-optical wavelength conversion based on a resonant nonlinear process within a terahertz quantum cascade laser. The wavelength of the pump beam (812 nm) corresponds to the interband transitions of the laser. The researchers measured a power-conversion efficiency of 0.13% in the range of 812–818 nm, which is the highest value obtained for such a device.

    • Julien Madéo
    • , Pierrick Cavalié
    •  & Sukhdeep S. Dhillon

  • Review Article |

    The design flexibility of quantum cascade lasers has enabled their expansion into mid-infrared wavelengths of 3–25 μm. This Review focuses on the two major areas of recent improvement: power and power efficiency, and spectral performance.

    • Yu Yao
    • , Anthony J. Hoffman
    •  & Claire F. Gmachl

  • Letter |

    Coherent Rabi flopping and coherent pulse reshaping are directly observed in an operating quantum cascade laser. The findings indicate the potential for coherent effects to be exploited in mode locking, and may stimulate new approaches for generating short pulses in quantum cascade lasers.

    • Hyunyong Choi
    • , Vasileios-Marios Gkortsas
    •  & Theodore B. Norris

  • Product Focus |

    The development of efficient and convenient mid-infrared sources based on quantum cascade lasers and nonlinear optics is creating possibilities for spectroscopy and sensing, reports The Scott Partnership.

  • News & Views |

    The demonstration of an integrated terahertz transceiver featuring a quantum cascade laser and a Schottky diode mixer promises new applications for compact and convenient terahertz photonic instrumentation.

    • Heinz-Wilhelm Hübers

  • Article |

    A terahertz quantum cascade laser and diode mixer are monolithically integrated to form a simple microelectronic terahertz transceiver. The performance of this system — the transmission of a coherent carrier, heterodyne reception of an external signal, frequency locking and tuning — is as efficient as that of discrete component terahertz photonic systems.

    • Michael C. Wanke
    • , Erik W. Young
    •  & Mark Lee

  • Letter |

    The phase locking of a longitudinal mode of a 2.7 THz quantum cascade laser was achieved using the spectral bandwidth of a mode-locked erbium-doped fibre laser. This technique is applicable to any terahertz quantum cascade laser source, and is an ideal tool for controlling the phase of different quantum cascade lasers.

    • Stefano Barbieri
    • , Pierre Gellie
    •  & David Ritchie

  • Industry Perspective |

    Since their invention, quantum cascade lasers have made considerable progress in terms of their wavelength range and efficiency. Today, they have important applications in environmental science, process control and medical diagnostics.

    • Antoine Müller
    •  & Jérôme Faist

  • News & Views |

    Researchers from Princeton and Northwestern Universities have independently demonstrated, through different design strategies, mid-infrared quantum cascade lasers with wall-plug efficiencies reaching 50%. The result is a quantum cascade laser so efficient that it generates more light than heat, albeit at low temperatures of operation.

    • Hui Chun Liu

  • Letter |

    A quantum cascade laser with a wall-plug efficiency of up to 50% is experimentally realized when operated at low temperatures and in pulsed mode. The high-efficiency performance is achieved by implementing an ultrastrong coupling between the injector and active regions.

    • Peter Q. Liu
    • , Anthony J. Hoffman
    •  & Claire F. Gmachl

  • Letter |

    A mid-infrared quantum cascade laser that emits more light than heat and features a high wall-plug efficiency of up to 53% when operated a temperature of 40 K is reported. The device utilizes a single-well injector design.

    • Yanbo Bai
    • , Steven Slivken
    •  & Manijeh Razeghi

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