Open AccessQuantum cascade lasers: from tool to product
Author(s) -
Manijeh Razeghi,
Qing Lü,
N. Bandyopadhyay,
Wenjia Zhou,
David Heydari,
Y. Bai,
S. Slivken
Publication year - 2015
Publication title -
optics express
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.394
H-Index - 271
ISSN - 1094-4087
DOI - 10.1364/oe.23.008462
Subject(s) - terahertz radiation , quantum cascade laser , optoelectronics , laser , optics , photomixing , materials science , broadband , terahertz spectroscopy and technology , cascade , grating , far infrared laser , microbolometer , bolometer , physics , terahertz metamaterials , chemistry , chromatography , detector
The quantum cascade laser (QCL) is an important laser source in the mid-infrared and terahertz frequency range. The past twenty years have witnessed its tremendous development in power, wall plug efficiency, frequency coverage and tunability, beam quality, as well as various applications based on QCL technology. Nowadays, QCLs can deliver high continuous wave power output up to 5.1 W at room temperature, and cover a wide frequency range from 3 to 300 μm by simply varying the material components. Broadband heterogeneous QCLs with a broad spectral range from 3 to 12 μm, wavelength agile QCLs based on monolithic sampled grating design, and on-chip beam QCL combiner are being developed for the next generation tunable mid-infrared source for spectroscopy and sensing. Terahertz sources based on nonlinear generation in QCLs further extend the accessible wavelength into the terahertz range. Room temperature continuous wave operation, high terahertz power up to 1.9 mW, and wide frequency tunability form 1 to 5 THz makes this type of device suitable for many applications in terahertz spectroscopy, imaging, and communication.