Open AccessNear-infrared frequency comb generation in mid-infrared interband cascade lasers
Author(s) -
Łukasz A. Sterczewski,
Mahmood Bagheri,
Clifford Frez,
C. L. Canedy,
I. Vurgaftman,
Mijin Kim,
Chul Soo Kim,
Charles D. Merritt,
W. W. Bewley,
J. R. Meyer
Publication year - 2019
Publication title -
optics letters/optics index
Language(s) - Uncategorized
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.524
H-Index - 272
eISSN - 1071-2763
pISSN - 0146-9592
DOI - 10.1364/ol.44.005828
Subject(s) - optics , cascade , infrared , frequency comb , sum frequency generation , laser , second harmonic generation , materials science , nonlinear optics , physics , spectroscopy , optoelectronics , continuous wave , chemistry , chromatography , quantum mechanics
The interband cascade laser (ICL) is an ideal candidate for low-power mid-infrared frequency comb spectroscopy. In this work, we demonstrate that its intracavity second-order optical nonlinearity induces a coherent up-conversion of the generated mid-infrared light to the near-infrared through second-harmonic and sum-frequency generation. At 1.8 µm, 10 mW of light at 3.6 µm convert into sub-nanowatt levels of optical power, spread across 30 nm of spectral coverage. The observed linear-to-nonlinear conversion efficiency exceeds ${3\;{\unicode{x00B5} {\rm W/W}}^2}$3µW/W 2 in continuous wave operation. We use a dual-band ICL frequency comb source to characterize water vapor absorption in both spectral bands.