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Quantum Cascade Surface Emitting Lasers

A low‐cost single frequency laser, emitting in the mid‐infrared spectral region and dissipating minimal electrical power, is a key ingredient for the next generation of portable gas sensors for high‐volume applications involving chemical sensing of important greenhouse and pollutant gases. Herein, a...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Laser & photonics reviews 2024-08, Vol.18 (8), p.n/a
Main Authors: Stark, David, Kapsalidis, Filippos, Markmann, Sergej, Bertrand, Mathieu, Marzban, Bahareh, Gini, Emilio, Beck, Mattias, Faist, Jérôme
Format: Article
Language:English
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Summary:A low‐cost single frequency laser, emitting in the mid‐infrared spectral region and dissipating minimal electrical power, is a key ingredient for the next generation of portable gas sensors for high‐volume applications involving chemical sensing of important greenhouse and pollutant gases. Herein, a Quantum Cascade Surface Emitting Laser (QCSEL) is proposed, which is implemented as a short linear cavity with high reflectivity coated end‐mirrors to suppress any edge emission and employs a buried semiconductor diffraction grating to extract the light from the surface. By wafer‐level testing, the cavity length scaling is investigated, mirror reflectivities larger than 0.9 are extracted, and a pulsed threshold power dissipation of 237 mW for an emission wavelength near 7.5 µm is achieved. Finally, single‐mode emission with a side‐mode suppression ratio larger than 33 dB is demonstrated for a 248 µm short cavity, which is mounted with the epitaxial layer up and operated in continuous wave at 20 ∘C$^{\circ}{\rm C}$. In this work, the Quantum Cascade Surface Emitting Laser (QCSEL) is introduced. This mid‐infrared laser, producible in high volumes at low cost, leverages wafer‐level testing and exploits miniaturization to minimize the electrical power dissipation. The obtained results for wavelengths near 4.5 and 8 µm pave the way to the broad adoption of the QCSEL in optical sensing applications.
ISSN:1863-8880
1863-8899
DOI:10.1002/lpor.202300663