Ultra-broadband quantum cascade laser, tunable over 760 cm^−1, with balanced gain

Optomechanical spectroscopy with broadband interferometric and quantum cascade laser sources.

The spectral tunability of semiconductor-metal multilayer structures can provide a channel for the conversion of light into useful mechanical actuation. Responses of suspended silicon, silicon nitride, chromium, gold, and aluminum microstructures are shown to be utilized as a detector for visible and IR spectroscopy. Both dispersive and interferometric approaches are investigated to delineate t...

Broadband all-electronically tunable MEMS terahertz quantum cascade lasers.

In this work, we demonstrate all-electronically tunable terahertz quantum cascade lasers (THz QCLs) with MEMS tuner structures. A two-stage MEMS tuner device is fabricated by a commercial open-foundry process performed by the company MEMSCAP. This provides an inexpensive, rapid, and reliable approach for MEMS tuner fabrication for THz QCLs with a high-precision alignment scheme. In order to ele...

Multicomponent gas analysis using broadband quantum cascade laser spectroscopy.

We present a broadband quantum cascade laser-based spectroscopic system covering the region between 850 and 1250 cm(-1). Its robust multipass cavity ensures a constant interaction length over the entire spectral region. The device enables the detection and identification of numerous molecules present in a complex gas mixture without any pre-treatment in two minutes. We demonstrate that we can d...

Broadly Tunable External Cavity Quantum Cascade Laser Development

Widely tunable quantum cascade laser-based terahertz source.

A compact, tunable, ultranarrowband terahertz source, Δν∼1  MHz, is demonstrated by upconversion of a 2.324 THz, free-running quantum cascade laser with a THz Schottky-diode-balanced mixer using a swept, synthesized microwave source to drive the nonlinearity. Continuously tunable radiation of 1 μW power is demonstrated in two frequency regions: ν(Laser) ± 0 to 50 GHz and ν(Laser) ± 70 to 115 GH...