Jérôme Faist

Quantum Cascade Laser

A semiconductor injection laser that differs in a fundamental way from diode lasers has been demonstrated. It is built out of quantum semiconductor structures that were grown by molecular beam epitaxy and designed by band structure engineering. Electrons streaming down a potential staircase sequentially emit photons at the steps. The steps consist of coupled quantum wells in which population inversion between discrete conduction band excited states is achieved by control of tunneling. A strong narrowing of the emission spectrum, above threshold, provides direct evidence of laser action at a wavelength of 4.2 micrometers with peak powers in excess of 8 milliwatts in pulsed operation. In quantum cascade lasers, the wavelength, entirely determined by quantum confinement, can be tailored from the mid-infrared to the submillimeter wave region in the same heterostructure material.

High power mid‐infrared (λ∼5 μm) quantum cascade lasers operating above room temperature

The high power operation of mid‐infrared quantum cascade lasers at temperatures up to T=320 K is reported. Gain at high temperature is optimized by a design combining low doping, a funnel injector, and a three‐well vertical transition active region. A molecular beam epitaxy grown InP top cladding layer is also used to optimize heat dissipation. A peak pulsed optical power of 200 mW and an average power of 6 mW are obtained at 300 K and at a wavelength λ=5.2 μm. The devices also operate in continuous wave up to 140 K.

GaAs/AlxGa1−xAs quantum cascade lasers

A unipolar injection quantum cascade (QC) laser grown in an AlGaAs/GaAs material system by molecular beam epitaxy, is reported. The active material is a 30 period sequence of injectors/active regions made from Al0.33Ga0.67As/GaAs-coupled quantum wells. For this device a special waveguide design, which complies with a GaAs heavily doped substrate and very short Al0.90Ga0.10As cladding layers, has been optimized. At a heat-sink temperature of 77 K, the laser emission wavelength is 9.4 μm with peak optical power exceeding 70 mW and the threshold current density is 7.3 kA/cm2. The maximum operating temperature is 140 K. This work experimentally demonstrates the general validity of QC laser principles by showing laser action in a heterostructure material different from the one used until now.

Distributed feedback quantum cascade lasers

Pulsed single mode operation of distributed feedback quantum cascade lasers is reported above room temperature at both 5.4 and 8 μm wavelengths. Peak optical powers up to 60 mW at 300 K are obtained with a tuning range of ∼60 nm from 100 to ∼320 K. The linewidth is limited by thermal drift during the pulse with a typical value of 0.3 cm−1 for a 10 ns long pulse at 300 K.

Short wavelength (λ∼3.4 μm) quantum cascade laser based on strained compensated InGaAs/AlInAs

A time division call distributing system for connecting trunks to operator positions is disclosed. The system includes a four-wire time division bus, with each trunk and position being assigned a permanent time slot in the transmit direction. A trunk requesting connection to a position activates a two-stage lockout circuit which enables the requesting trunk and an idle position. When a trunk and position are enabled, they transmit to each other over an identity bus, a pulse in their respective permanently assigned transmit time slots. These pulses are utilized to store, in the trunk and the position circuits, time slot information for the receive direction.

Sensitive absorption spectroscopy with a room-temperature distributed-feedback quantum-cascade laser

We report what we believe are the first spectroscopic measurements to be made with a room-temperature quantum-cascade distributed-feedback laser. Using wavelength modulation spectroscopy, we detected N(2)O and CH(4) in the chemical fingerprint wavelength range near 8microm . The noise equivalent absorbance for our measurement was 5 parts in 10(5), limited by excess amplitude modulation on the laser output, which corresponds to a 1-Hz bandwidth detection limit of 250 parts N(2)O in 10(9) parts N(2) in a 1-m path length.

Mid-infrared frequency comb based on a quantum cascade laser

Optical frequency combs act as rulers in the frequency domain and have opened new avenues in many fields such as fundamental time metrology, spectroscopy and frequency synthesis. In particular, spectroscopy by means of optical frequency combs has surpassed the precision and speed of Fourier spectrometers. Such a spectroscopy technique is especially relevant for the mid-infrared range, where the fundamental rotational–vibrational bands of most light molecules are found. Most mid-infrared comb sources are based on down-conversion of near-infrared, mode-locked, ultrafast lasers using nonlinear crystals. Their use in frequency comb spectroscopy applications has resulted in an unequalled combination of spectral coverage, resolution and sensitivity. Another means of comb generation is pumping an ultrahigh-quality factor microresonator with a continuous-wave laser. However, these combs depend on a chain of optical components, which limits their use. Therefore, to widen the spectroscopic applications of such mid-infrared combs, a more direct and compact generation scheme, using electrical injection, is preferable. Here we present a compact, broadband, semiconductor frequency comb generator that operates in the mid-infrared. We demonstrate that the modes of a continuous-wave, free-running, broadband quantum cascade laser are phase-locked. Combining mode proliferation based on four-wave mixing with gain provided by the quantum cascade laser leads to a phase relation similar to that of a frequency-modulated laser. The comb centre carrier wavelength is 7 micrometres. We identify a narrow drive current range with intermode beat linewidths narrower than 10 hertz. We find comb bandwidths of 4.4 per cent with an intermode stability of less than or equal to 200 hertz. The intermode beat can be varied over a frequency range of 65 kilohertz by radio-frequency injection. The large gain bandwidth and independent control over the carrier frequency offset and the mode spacing open the way to broadband, compact, all-solid-state mid-infrared spectrometers.

Resonant tunneling in quantum cascade lasers

Experimental evidence that in quantum cascade lasers electron injection into the active region is controlled by resonant tunneling between two-dimensional subbands is discussed. A quantitative analysis is carried out using an equation for the current density based on a tight-binding approximation. Electron injection into the active region is optimized when the current density is limited by the lifetime of the excited state of the laser transition. In this regime, quasi-equilibrium is reached between the population of the injector ground state and that of the excited state of the laser transition characterized by a common quasi-Fermi level. The design of the injector depends on the selected laser active region; in particular, the choice of physical parameters, such as doping concentration and injection barrier thicknesses, is in general different for vertical or diagonal transition lasers. The paper concludes with an investigation of the transport properties at threshold and its dependence on stimulated emission; a relationship between the differential resistance above threshold and the value of the slope efficiency is deduced.

Quantum cascade lasers operating from 1.2to1.6THz

Two terahertz quantum cascade lasers based on GaAs∕Al0.1Ga0.9As heterostructures are reported. Pulsed mode operation up to 84K and continuous wave (cw) power of 0.36mW at 10K are demonstrated for the laser which emits from 1.34to1.58THz. The other laser shows emission from 1.2to1.32THz with pulsed mode operation up to 69K and cw power of 0.12mW at 10K.

Controlling the sign of quantum interference by tunnelling from quantum wells

The sign of the interference (constructive or destructive) between quantum-mechanical paths depends on the phase difference between the paths. In the Fano effect two optical paths from the ground state of a system — one direct and one mediated by a resonance — to a state in an energy continuum interfere to produce an asymmetric absorption spectrum that falls to zero near the absorption maximum. Zero absorption occurs as the wavelength is scanned across the resonance, at a photon energy corresponding to a 180 ° phase difference between the paths. Similar interference effects occur when two absorption paths are mediated by two different states, and they provide the basis for lasers that operate without a population inversion. Here we report the control, by quantum mechanical tunnelling, of interference in optical absorption. The two intermediate states are resonances that arise from the mixing of the states in two adjacent semiconductors quantum wells, which are broadened by tunnelling into the same energy continuum through an ultra-thin potential-energy barrier. Inverting the direction of tunnelling by reversing the position of the barrier with respect to the two quantum wells changes the interference from destructive to constructive, as predicted theoretically. This effect might provide a way to make semiconductor lasers without population inversion.