High efficiency quantum cascade laser frequency comb

Quanyong Lu, Donghai Wu, Steven Slivken, Manijeh Razeghi*

*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

22 Scopus citations

Abstract

An efficient mid-infrared frequency comb source is of great interest to high speed, high resolution spectroscopy and metrology. Here we demonstrate a mid-IR quantum cascade laser frequency comb with a high power output and narrow beatnote linewidth at room temperature. The active region was designed with a strong-coupling between the injector and the upper lasing level for high internal quantum efficiency and a broadband gain. The group velocity dispersion was engineered for efficient, broadband mode-locking via four wave mixing. The comb device exhibits a narrow intermode beatnote linewidth of 50.5 Hz and a maximum wall-plug efficiency of 6.5% covering a spectral coverage of 110 cm-1 at δ ∼ 8 μm. The efficiency is improved by a factor of 6 compared with previous demonstrations. The high power efficiency and narrow beatnote linewidth will greatly expand the applications of quantum cascade laser frequency combs including high-precision remote sensing and spectroscopy.

Original languageEnglish (US)
Article number43806
JournalScientific reports
Volume7
DOIs
StatePublished - Mar 6 2017

ASJC Scopus subject areas

  • General

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