Broadly Tunable Mid-Infrared Quantum Cascade Lasers

Quantum cascade lasers are unipolar semiconductor lasers based on intersubband transitions in quantum wells. These lasers have demonstrated high- performance room-temperature operation in the technologically important mid-infrared spectral range, often referred to as the molecular fingerprint region of the electromagnetic spectrum. They are therefore well suited for the realization of compact, ultra-sensitive trace-gas sensors based on absorption spectroscopy. In this book, I present our work on the development of broadly tunable external cavity quantum cascade lasers for such applications. In particular, we focused on improving the room temperature performance of these sources and on extending their tuning range through the use of spectrally broadband bound-to-continuum and heterogeneous-cascade active regions.

Autorentext

Richard Maulini received his Ph.D. in Physics from University of Neuchatel in Switzerland, where his research focused on the development of broadly tunable quantum cascade lasers (QCLs). Since 2007, Dr. Maulini has been working as a Senior Scientist at Pranalytica. His present research interests include high power QCLs and uncooled QCLs.