Mid-IR Interband Cascade Lasers
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0891-EE01-06.1
Mid-IR Interband Cascade Lasers Rui Q. Yang, Cory J. Hill, Yueming Qiu Jet Propulsion Laboratory, California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, California ABSTRACT Efficient mid-IR interband cascade (IC) lasers have been developed based on III-V semiconductor materials with lasing emission covering a wavelength range from 2.7 to 5.6 µm. These IC lasers reuse injected electrons in cascade stages for photon generation with high quantum efficiency to achieve high output powers. Also, IC lasers have a low threshold current density with a very efficient use of applied voltage, resulting in reduced power consumption. Single-mode distributed feedback lasers have been made, and integrated into aircraft and balloon instruments which made atmospheric measurements of CH4 and HCl. In this work, the characteristics of IC lasers and their recent developments are reviewed. INTRODUCTION Compact and reliable mid-infrared sources are needed for many applications such as gas sensing, environmental monitoring, medical diagnostics, free space communications, infrared countermeasures (IRCM), chemical warfare monitoring and IR lidar. The availability of efficient mid-IR semiconductor diode lasers will enable the sensitive detection of many gases such as CH4, C2H2, HC3N, CO, CO2, HCl, C2H6, and H2CO, and their isotopes, all of which are of great interest in atmospheric and planetary science. Requirements for such lasers include a relatively high output power and continuous wave (cw) operation either at ambient temperature or at temperatures accessible with thermoelectric (TE) coolers. Antimonide-based mid-IR interband cascade (IC) lasers [1], which reuse injected electrons in cascade stages for photon emission (Fig. 1), can have high quantum efficiency and low threshold current density with efficient use of applied voltage. These IC lasers can have a wide wavelength tailoring range, easily covering the important 3-5 µm spectral region. Theoretical calculations [2, 3] projected the feasibility of mid-IR IC lasers to operate in continuous wave (cw) mode up to room temperature with high output power. These mid-IR lasers are promising for meeting the requirements of many of the applications mentioned above. Since the original proposal of type-II IC lasers in 1994 [1], significant progress has been achieved toward developing high-performance mid-IR IC lasers [4-14]. For applications in chemical sensing, hv distributed feedback (DFB) IC lasers [8] have hv been demonstrated with stable single-mode hv operation in cw mode for the wavelength range hv from ~3.2 to 3.5 µm. These DFB IC lasers have Cascading hv been employed for the detection of gases [14] E hv such as methane (CH4), hydrogen chloride (HCl), and formaldehyde (H2CO) [15]. IC lasers have hv hv interband been flown on aircraft and high-altitude balloon transition k instruments and measured CH4 and HCl profiles in the stratosphere. In this paper, we will review the characteristics of IC lasers and recent Fig. 1 Illustration of the interband cascade laser
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