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QUANTUM CASCADE LASERS

Ring a ring o’ pulses

Nature Physics volume 16, pages 708–709 (2020)Cite this article

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Quantum cascade lasers are bright and compact semiconductor lasers that emit light in the mid- to far-infrared spectral region. The use of a closed ring cavity has now set them on the path towards ultrafast pulses.

The complex Ginzburg–Landau equation serves as the mathematical foundation that links many fields of physics, as diverse as superconductivity, superfluidity, nonlinear photonics and water waves. Mapping or approximating a new physical system or question to this fundamental equation or one of its many derivatives, such as the nonlinear Schrödinger equation, has often marked a major advance in understanding the full system. It is exactly this valuable advance that Marco Piccardo and colleagues1 have now reported for quantum cascade lasers (QCLs) in Nature.

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Fig. 1: Schematic of unidirectional ring quantum cascade laser (QCL).

References

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Institute of Physics, Swiss Federal Institute of Technology, EPFL, Lausanne, Switzerland

    Johann Riemensberger

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  1. Johann Riemensberger
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Correspondence to Johann Riemensberger.

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Riemensberger, J. Ring a ring o’ pulses. Nat. Phys. 16, 708–709 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41567-020-0945-2

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41567-020-0945-2

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