Related papers: Regular Self-Pulsations in External Cavity Mid-IR …
Quantum cascade lasers (QCLs) are semiconductor-heterostructure devices known for their emission in the mid-infrared and THz spectral regions. Due to their operating regime, their intrinsic linewidth is significantly narrower compared to…
We present an extended study concerning the dynamics of dense and harmonic coherent regimes in quantum cascade lasers (QCLs) in a Fabry--Perot (FP) configuration emitting in the terahertz (THz) spectral region. Firstly, we study the device…
The quantum cascade laser (QCL) has evolved to be a compact, powerful source of coherent mid-infrared (mid-IR) light. However, its fast gain dynamics strongly restricts the formation of ultrashort pulses. As such, the shortest pulses…
We report the unequivocal demonstration of mid-infrared mode-locked pulses from a semiconductor laser. The train of short pulses was generated by actively modulating the current and hence the optical gain in a small section of an…
A continuous-wave Fabry-Perot quantum cascade laser (QCL) emitting at 8.1 $\mu$m operating in the single mode regime has been coherently phase locked to a turn-key low-noise commercial mid-Infrared (mid-IR) optical frequency comb. The…
The development of the semiconductor quantum cascade laser (QCL) [1] has enabled bright coherent sources operating at frequencies between the optical (>100 THz) and electronic (<0.5 THz) ranges opening this frequency region for fundamental…
We stabilized the frequency of a compact planar-waveguide external cavity laser (ECL) on a Fabry-P\'erot cavity (FPC) through a Pound-Drever-Hall scheme. The residual frequency stability of the ECL is 1E-14, comparable to the stability…
A theoretical study on low-threshold multimode instabilities in quantum cascade lasers (QCLs) and laser diodes (LDs) is presented. Previously, low threshold Risken-Nummedal-Graham-Haken (RNGH) instabilities were reported in several…
Quantum Cascade Lasers (QCL) are increasingly being used to probe the mid-infrared "molecular fingerprint" region. This prompted efforts towards improving their spectral performance, in order to reach ever-higher resolution and precision.…
Frequency-stabilized mid-infrared lasers are valuable tools for precision molecular spectroscopy. However, their implementation remains limited by complicated stabilization schemes. Here we achieve optical self-locking of a quantum cascade…
Quantum cascade lasers (QCLs) represent a fascinating accomplishment of quantum engineering and enable the direct generation of terahertz (THz) frequency radiation from an electrically-biased semiconductor heterostructure. Their large…
We report the observation of a clear single-mode instability threshold in continuous-wave Fabry-Perot quantum cascade lasers (QCLs). The instability is characterized by the appearance of sidebands separated by tens of free spectral ranges…
We present homogeneous quantum cascade lasers (QCLs) emitting around 3 THz which display bandwidths up to 950 GHz with a single stable beatnote. Devices are spontaneously operating in a harmonic comb state, and when in a dense mode regime…
Time-resolved spectroscopy-based pump-probe experiments performed on quantum cascade lasers (QCLs) exhibit an initial fast gain recovery followed by a slow tail such that the equilibrium gain is not recovered in a cavity round-trip time.…
We report a homogeneous quantum cascade laser (QCL) emitting at Terahertz (THz) frequencies, with a total spectral emission of about 0.6 THz centered around 3.3 THz, a current density dynamic range of Jdr=1.53, and a continuous wave output…
We demonstrate a powerful tool for high-resolution mid-IR spectroscopy and frequency metrology with quantum cascade lasers (QCLs). We have implemented frequency stabilization of a QCL to an ultra-low expansion (ULE) reference cavity, via…
A Martinez-type stretcher-compressor is used to modify the spectral phases of a high-power (~1 W) QCL comb emitted at 8.2 {\mu}m with more than 100 cm-1 spectral bandwidth. Using this scheme, we demonstrate a compression of the QCL output…
One salient characteristic of Quantum Cascade Laser (QCL) is its very shor gain recovery time that so far thwarted the attempts to achieve self-mode locking of the device into a train of single pulses. We show theoretically that four wave…
It is believed that passive mode locking is virtually impossible in quantum cascade lasers (QCLs) because of too fast carrier relaxation time. Here, we revisit this possibility and theoretically show that stable mode locking and pulse…
Quantum Cascade Lasers (QCLs) are generally designed to avoid negative differential conductivity (NDC) in the vicinity of the operation point in order to prevent instabilities. We demonstrate, that the threshold condition is possible under…