Phase-locked single-mode terahertz quantum cascade lasers array

We demonstrated a scheme of phase-locked terahertz quantum cascade lasers(THz QCLs)array,with a single-mode pulse power of 108 mW at 13 K.The device utilizes a Talbot cavity to achieve phase locking among five ridge lasers with first-order buried distributed feedback(DFB)grating,resulting in nearly five times amplification of the single-mode power.Due to the optimum length of Talbot cavity depends on wavelength,the combination of Talbot cavity with the DFB grating leads to better power amplification than the combination with multimode Fabry-Perot(F-P)cavities.The Talbot cavity facet reflects light back to the ridge array direction and achieves self-imaging in the array,enabling phase-locked operation of ridges.We set the spacing between adjacent elements to be 220μm,much larger than the free-space wavelength,ensuring the operation of the fundamental supermode throughout the laser's dynamic range and obtaining a high-brightness far-field distribution.This scheme provides a new approach for enhancing the single-mode power of THz QCLs.

Anti-symmetric sampled grating quantum cascade laser for mode selection

For mode selection in a quantum cascade laser(QCL),we demonstrate an anti-symmetric sampled grating(ASG).The wavelength of the-1-th mode of this laser has been blue-shifted more than 75 nm(~10 cm^(-1))compared with that of an ordinary sampled grating laser with an emission wavelength of approximately 8.6μm,when the periodicities within both the base grating and the sample grating are kept constant.Under this condition,an improvement in the continuous tuning capability of the QCL array is ensured.The ASG structure is fabricated in holographic exposure and optical photolithography,thereby enhancing its flexibility,repeatability,and cost-effectiveness.The wavelength modulation capability of the two channels of the grating is insensitive to the variations in channel size,assuming that the overall waveguide width remains constant.The output wavelength can be tailored freely within a certain range by adjusting the width of the ridge and the material of the cladding layer.

Quantum cascade lasers grown by MOCVD

Sharing the advantages of high optical power,high efficiency and design flexibility in a compact size,quantum cascade lasers(QCLs)are excellent mid-to-far infrared laser sources for gas sensing,infrared spectroscopic,medical diagnosis,and defense applications.Metalorganic chemical vapor deposition(MOCVD)is an important technology for growing high quality semiconductor materials,and has achieved great success in the semiconductor industry due to its advantages of high efficiency,short maintenance cycles,and high stability and repeatability.The utilization of MOCVD for the growth of QCL materials holds a significant meaning for promoting the large batch production and industrial application of QCL devices.This review summarizes the recent progress of QCLs grown by MOCVD.Material quality and the structure design together determine the device performance.Research progress on the performance improvement of MOCVD-grown QCLs based on the optimization of material quality and active region structure are mainly reviewed.

Rapid Detection of Accelerants in Fire Debris Using a Field Portable Mid-Infrared Quantum Cascade Laser Based Analyzer

Arson presents a challenging crime scene for fire investigators worldwide. Key to the investigation of suspected arson cases is the analysis of fire debris for the presence of accelerants or ignitable liquids. This study has investigated the application and method development of vapor phase mid-Infrared (mid-IR) spectroscopy using a field portable quantum cascade laser (QCL) based system for the detection and identification of accelerant residues such as gasoline, diesel, and ethanol in fire debris. A searchable spectral library of various ignitable fluids and fuel components measured in the vapor phase was constructed that allowed for real-time identification of accelerants present in samples using software developed in-house. Measurement of vapors collected from paper material that had been doused with an accelerant followed by controlled burning and then extinguished with water showed that positive identification could be achieved for gasoline, diesel, and ethanol. This vapor phase mid-IR QCL method is rapid, easy to use, and has the sensitivity and discrimination capability that make it well suited for non-destructive crime scene sample analysis. Sampling and measurement can be performed in minutes with this 7.5 kg instrument. This vibrational spectroscopic method required no time-consuming sample pretreatment or complicated solvent extraction procedure. The results of this initial feasibility study demonstrate that this portable fire debris analyzer would greatly benefit arson investigators performing analysis on-site.

基于8.309μm QCL的硫化氢/甲烷开路式检测方法研究

H_(2)S,CH_(4)多组分气体浓度测量技术的研究对石油石化行业的安全生产有重要意义。基于中红外TDLAS技术,选用中心波长为8.309μm的量子级联激光器(Quantum Cascade Laser,QCL)为检测光源,搭建30 m长距离的遥测实验系统,使用WMS波长调制法对H2S,CH4气体的吸收谱线进行连续调谐与扫描,并对高频正弦载波进行了最优深化调制,实现了H2S,CH4多组分气体的同时测量。实验将H2S与5%体积分数的高浓度水汽进行混合测量,分析并验证了该波段的水汽吸收难以对测量造成交叉干扰的优良特性,并利用Savitzky-Golay平滑滤波器提高了检测信号的信噪比。通过遥测实验,分析了15 m,30 m不同遥测距离对检测信号的影响,并利用增加积分时间与计算信噪比的方法,得到了128.75×10^(-9)m的遥测最低限。最后,Allan方差的计算结果表明,当积分时间为183 s,142 s时,系统对H2S,CH4气体的最低检测下限分别为0.593×10^(-9)和1.160×10^(-9)。本文的研究结果为中红外波段H2S,CH4多组分气体的高灵敏度、同时测量提供了一种有效途径,为多组分气体的遥测应用提供了参考。

High powerλ~8.5μm quantum cascade laser grown by MOCVD operating continuous-wave up to 408 K

Robust quantum cascade laser(QCL)enduring high temperature continuous-wave(CW)operation is of critical importance for some applications.We report on the realization of lattice-matched InGaAs/InAlAs/InP QCL materials grown by metal-organic chemical vapor deposition(MOCVD).High interface quality structures designed for light emission at 8.5μm are achieved by optimizing and precise controlling of growth conditions.A CW output power of 1.04 W at 288 K was obtained from a 4 mm-long and 10μm-wide coated laser.Corresponding maximum wall-plug efficiency and threshold current density were 7.1%and 1.18 kA/cm2,respectively.The device can operate in CW mode up to 408 K with an output power of 160 mW.

Design of surface emitting distributed feedback quantum cascade laser with single-lobe far-field pattern and high outcoupling efficiency

A 7.8-μm surface emitting second-order distributed feedback quantum cascade laser （DFB QCL） structure with metallized surface grating is studied. The modal property of this structure is described by utilizing coupled-mode theory where the coupling coefficients are derived from exact Floquet-Bloch solutions of infinite periodic structure. Based on this theory, the influence of waveguide structure and grating topography as well as device length on the laser performance is numerically investigated. The optimized surface emitting second-order DFB QCL structure design exhibits a high surface outcoupling efficiency of 22% and a low threshold gain of 10 cm-1. Using a π phase-shift in the centre of the grating, a high-quality single-lobe far-field radiation pattern is obtained.

Quantum cascade superluminescent light emitters with high power and compact structure

Quantum cascade(QC)superluminescent light emitters(SLEs)have emerged as desirable broadband mid-infrared(MIR)light sources for growing number of applications in areas like medical imaging,gas sensing and national defense.However,it is challenging to obtain a practical high-power device due to the very low efficiency of spontaneous emission in the intersubband transitions in QC structures.Herein a design of^5μm SLEs is demonstrated with a two-phonon resonancebased QC active structure coupled with a compact combinatorial waveguide structure which comprises a short straight part adjacent to a tilted stripe and to a J-shaped waveguide.The as-fabricated SLEs achieve a high output power of 1.8 mW,exhibiting the potential to be integrated into array devices without taking up too much chip space.These results may facilitate the realization of SLE arrays to attain larger output power and pave the pathway towards the practical applications of broadband MIR light sources.

A Broadband Pulsed External-Cavity Quantum Cascade Laser Operating near 6.9μm

We report an external cavity quantum cascade laser （EC-QCL） operating near 6.9μm using the Littman Metcalf configuration. The EC-QCL works in a pulsed mode and can be tuned continuously from 1340 to 1640cm^-1 by only tilting the tuning mirror. The fine tuning ability of the EC-QCL is demonstrated by measuring the absorption spectrum of water in the ambient air with a lock-in amplifier.

Low Power Consumption Distributed-Feedback Quantum Cascade Lasers Operating in Continuous-Wave Mode above 90℃ at λ～7.2μm

We report on the design and fabrication of λ-7.2μm distributed feedback quantum cascade lasers lot very high temperature cw operation and low electrical power consumption. The cw operation is reported above 90℃. For a 2-mm-long and 10-μm-wide laser coated with high-reflectivity on the rear facet, more than 170mW of output power is obtained at 20℃ with a threshold power consumption of 2.4 W, corresponding to 30mW with a threshold power consumption of 3.9 W at 90℃. Robust single-mode emission with a side-mode suppression ratio above 25 dB is continuously tunable by the heat sink temperature or injection current.

Broad gain,continuous-wave operation of InP-based quantum cascade laser atλ~11.8μm

We demonstrate a broad gain,continuous-wave(CW)operation InP-based quantum cascade laser(QCL)emitting at 11.8μm with a modified dual-upper-state(DAU)and diagonal transition active region design.A 3 mm cavity length,16.5μm average ridge wide QCL with high-reflection(HR)coatings demonstrates a maximum peak power of 1.07 W at 283 K and CW output power of 60 m W at 293 K.The device also shows a broad and dual-frequency lasing spectrum in pulsed mode and a maximum average power of 258.6 mW at 283 K.Moreover,the full width at half maximum(FWHM)of the electroluminescent spectrum measured at subthreshold current is 2.37μm,which indicates a broad gain spectrum of the materials.The tuning range of 1.38μm is obtained by a grating-coupled external cavity(EC)Littrow configuration,which is beneficial for gas detection.

Coupled-ridge waveguide quantum cascade laser array lasing at λ~5μm

In this work,we demonstrated high-power quantum cascade laser(QCL)arrays lasing at λ~5μm by employing an optimized coupled-ridge waveguide(CRW)structure.Five-element QCL arrays were simulated and fabricated through a two-step etching method to extend the CRW structure to a mid-wave infrared regime.A lateral far-field with the main peak near a diffraction-limited intensity curve of about 10°was observed by properly designing a geometric shape of the ridges and interspaces.By introducing a buried 2nd-order distributed feedback(DFB)grating,substrate emission with a radiation power above 1 W at 25℃ is achieved.Single longitudinal mode operation is obtained by changing the temperature of the heatsink with a good linear wavelength tuning coefficient of -0.2 cm^(-1)/K.

Tunable characteristic of phase-locked quantum cascade laser arrays

A multimode interference(MMI)structure is designed to simplify the fabrication of quantum cascade laser(QCL)phase-locked arrays.The MMI geometry is optimized with a sufficient output channel distance to accommodate conventional photolithography and wet etching process by which power amplifier array is fabricated without using the complicated two-step etching-regrowth or dry etching technique.The far-field pattern with periodically modulated peaks reveals that the beams from the arrays are phase-locked.Furthermore,the frequency tuning performance of the MMI-based phase-locked arrays is studied using the Littrow-configuration external cavity structure.A wavelength tuning range of more than 60 cm^(−1) is demonstrated,which will eventually realize the high power,frequency tunable,large-scale phase-locked arrays,and their application in spectroscopy.

Design of 1.33 μm and 1.55 μm Wavelengths Quantum Cascade Photodetector

In this paper, a quantum cascade photodetector based on intersubband transitions in quantum wells with ability of detecting 1.33 μm and 1.55 μm wavelengths in two individual current paths is introduced. Multi quantum wells structures based on III-Nitride materials due to their large band gaps are used. In order to calculate the photodetector parameters, wave functions and energy levels are obtained by solving 1-D Schrodinger–Poisson equation self consistently at 80 ?K. Responsivity values are about 22 mA/W and 18.75 mA/W for detecting of 1.33 μm and 1.55 μm wavelengths, respectively. Detectivity values are calculated as 1.17 × 107 (Jones) and 2.41 × 107 (Jones) at wavelengths of 1.33 μm and 1.55 μm wavelengths, respectively.

Beam steering characteristics in high-power quantum-cascade lasers emitting at∼4.6µm

A beam steering effect of high-power quantum cascade(QC) lasers emitting at 4.6 μm was investigated. The continuous wave(CW) output power of an uncoated, 6-mm-long, 7.5-μm-wide buried-heterostructure QC laser at 25℃ was as high as 854.2 m W. The maximum beam steering angle was offset by ±14.2° from the facet normal(0°) in pulsed mode. The phenomenon was judged explicitly by combining the diffraction limit theory and Fourier transform of the spectra. It was also verified by finite element method software simulation and the calculation of two-dimensional(2 D)effective-index model. The observed steering is consistent with a theory for coherence between the two lowest order lateral modes. Therefore, we have established an intrinsic linkage between the spectral instabilities and the beam steering by using the Fourier transform of the spectra, and further presented an extremely valid method to judge the beam steering. The content of this method includes both three equidistant peak positions in the Fourier transform of the spectra and the beam quality located between once the diffraction limit(DL) and twice the DL.

Single-Mode Fabry-Pérot Quantum Cascade Lasers at λ ~10.5 μm

In this paper, we report a single-mode Fabry-Pérot long wave infrared quantum cascade lasers based on the double phonon resonance active region design. For room temperature CW operation, the wafer with 35 stages was processed into buried heterostructure lasers. For a 4 mm long and 13 μm wide laser with high-reflectivity (HR) coating on the rear facet, continuous wave output power of 43 mW at 288 K and 5 mW at 303 K is obtained with threshold current densities of 2.17 and 2.7 kA/cm2. The lasing wavelength is around 10.5 μm. Single mode emission was observed for this particular device over the whole investigated current and temperature range.

EC-QCL中红外激光外差光谱遥测技术研究

具有高灵敏度、高光谱分辨率的中红外激光外差光谱气体探测,是以窄线宽激光器作为本地振荡器,通过放大入射的微弱吸收信号,实现大气痕量气体柱浓度和垂直浓度廓线的遥感探测技术。基于当前的激光外差辐射计,提出了一种新型的仪器结构。引入直接吸收光谱系统实现外差系统工作波长的选定和频率标定。采用紧凑型红外黑体源EMIRS200作为宽带辐射光源,替代太阳光,进行激光外差系统的验证分析。为激光外差辐射计的下一步系统集成提供了新方法。研制了中红外宽调谐激光外差辐射计概念验证系统,对系统基本参数进行了测试分析。该系统采用8μm外腔量子级联激光器(EC-QCL)作为本地振荡光源,红外黑体源EMIRS200作为辐射光源。通过对该系统基本参数的测试数据分析,获得了系统信噪比(~120)和外差转换效率(~0.006)参数。利用艾伦方差分析确定了EC-QCL的稳定时间至少达到了133 s,因此非常适合于激光外差光谱的采集。得到直接吸收光谱系统的1σ最小体积分数探测限为2.312×10^(-8),能够满足大气甲烷高灵敏检测需求,同时实现外差系统工作波长的选定和频率标定。最后利用已建立的激光外差辐射计概念验证系统获取了甲烷中红外8μm处高分辨激光外差吸收光谱,并与甲烷在8μm波段附近的直接吸收光谱进行了光谱比对。最后拟合了系统光谱分辨率参数,验证了该概念验证系统的高光谱分辨率,能满足较窄线宽条件下的高分辨率激光外差光谱的测量。实验结果表明,激光外差系统中引入直接吸收光谱系统可以实现外差系统工作波长的选定和频率标定。紧凑型红外黑体源EMIRS200可以用于激光外差辐射计的结构优化,实现激光外差系统的分析验证,为进一步应用于测量实际大气中多组分气体的光谱提供了实验基础并拓展激光外差辐射计在高精度遥感探测领域的应用。

Applicability of an eddy covariance system based on a close-path quantum cascade laser spectrometer for measuring nitrous oxide fluxes from subtropical vegetable fields

亚热带蔬菜地是氧化亚氮(N_2O)的重要排放源,本研究首次采用基于闭路量子级联激光吸收光谱仪的涡动相关(QCLAS-EC)法观测亚热带蔬菜地秋冬季非施肥阶段的N_2O排放通量,以评估QCLAS-EC法测量亚热带蔬菜地N_2O通量的适用性。结果表明,QCLAS-EC观测系统在野外条件下能长期稳定运行,可观测到N_2O排放的季节变化趋势,其检测限为18.5μg N m^(-2) h^(-1)(95%置信水平),试验期间获得的97.5%的N_2O通量大于此检测限,表明QCLAS-EC观测系统可有效并准确测量亚热带蔬菜地的N_2O排放通量,仪器本身的灵敏度不是通量检测的限制因素。

Material growth and device fabrication of terahertz quantum-cascade laser based on bound-to-continuum structure

The terahertz quantum-cascade laser （THz QCL） based on bound-to-continuum structure is demonstrated. The X-ray diffraction measurement of the material shows a high crystalline quality of the active region. A THz QCL device was fabricated with semi-insulating surface-plasmon waveguide. The test device is lasing at about 3 THz and operating up to 60 K. It shows a single frequency property under different drive currents and temperatures. At 9 K, the maximum output power is greater than 2 mW with a threshold current density of 159 A/cm2.

Frequency-locking and threshold current-lowering effects of a quantum cascade laser and an application in gas detection field

In this paper,the frequency-locking and threshold current-lowering effects of a quantum cascade laser are studied and achieved.Combined with cavity-enhanced absorption spectroscopy,the noninvasive detection of H_2 with a prepared concentration of 500 ppm in multiple dissolved gases is performed and evaluated.The high frequency selectivity of 0.0051 cm^-1 at an acquisition time of 1 s allows the sensitive detection of the（1-0） S（l） band of H_2 with a high accuracy of（96.53±0.29）%and shows that the detection limit to an absorption line of 4712.9046 cm^-1 is approximately（17.26±0.63） ppm at an atmospheric pressure and a temperature of 20 ℃.