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Microcavity‐Stabilized Quantum Cascade Laser
Author(s) -
Siciliani de Cumis Mario,
Borri Simone,
Insero Giacomo,
Galli Iacopo,
Savchenkov Anatoliy,
Eliyahu Danny,
Ilchenko Vladimir,
Akikusa Naota,
Matsko Andrey,
Maleki Lute,
De Natale Paolo
Publication year - 2016
Publication title -
laser and photonics reviews
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 3.778
H-Index - 116
eISSN - 1863-8899
pISSN - 1863-8880
DOI - 10.1002/lpor.201500214
Subject(s) - laser linewidth , laser , quantum cascade laser , optoelectronics , materials science , optics , finesse , cascade , tunable laser , spectroscopy , wavelength , fabry–pérot interferometer , physics , chemistry , chromatography , quantum mechanics
Narrow‐linewidth lasers are key elements in optical metrology and spectroscopy. Spectral purity of these lasers determines accuracy of the measurements and quality of collected data. Solid state and fiber lasers are stabilized to relatively large and complex external optical cavities or narrow atomic and molecular transitions to improve their spectral purity. While this stabilization technique is rather generic, its complexity increases tremendously moving to longer wavelenghts, to the infrared (IR) range. Inherent increase of losses of optical materials at longer wavelengths hinders realization of compact, room temperature, high finesse IR cavities suitable for laser stabilization. In this paper, we report on demonstration of quantum cascade lasers stabilized to high‐Q crystalline mid‐IR microcavities. The lasers operating at room temperature in the 4.3‐4.6 μm region have a linewidth approaching 10 kHz and are promising for on‐chip mid‐IR and IR spectrometers.