Quantum and Interband Cascade Lasers. from Optical Engineering

Description

An SPIE Special Collection

Over 16 years have passed since the Bell Labs group headed by Federico Capasso first demonstrated the quantum cascade laser (QCL). The intervening interval has seen the QCL evolve from a barely functional scientific curiosity into a powerful technology poised to offer new capabilities to a broad spectrum of real-world applications. In assembling this special section of Optical Engineering, our dual goals have been to provide a snapshot of the cascade laser field in its adolescence, and to familiarize a wider audience of optical engineers with the far-reaching practical potential of these unique IR sources.

This collection of papers was originally published in Vol. 49, No. 11 (2010) of Optical Engineering.

Table of Contents

• Special Section Guest Editorial: Quantum and Interband Cascade Lasers
  Jerry Meyer, Igor Vurgaftman
• High-performance midinfrared quantum cascade lasers
  Federico Capasso
• High-performance InP-based midinfrared quantum cascade lasers at Northwestern University
  Manijeh Razeghi, Yanbo Bai, Steven Slivken, Shaban R. Darvish
• Reliability of 4.6-μm quantum cascade lasers under continuous-waveroom-temperature operation
  Feng Xie, Catherine G. Caneau, Herve P. LeBlanc, Christopher A. Page, Satish Chaparala, Oberon D. Deichmann, Lawrence C. Hughes, Chung-en Zah
• Progress in high-performance quantum cascade lasers
  Arkadiy Lyakh, Richard Maulini, Alexei G. Tsekoun, C. Kumar N. Patel
• Quantum cascade lasers: high-power emission and single-mode operation in the long-wave infrared (−λ > 6-μm)
  Mariano Troccoli, Xiaojun Wang, Jenyu Fan
• Nonlinear gain behavior in injectorless quantum cascade lasers
  Simeon Katz, Augustinas Vizbaras, Gerhard Boehm, Markus-Christian Amann
• Electron leakage and its suppression via deep-well structures in 4.5- to 5.0-μm-emitting quantum cascade lasers
  Dan Botez, Jae Cheol Shin, Sushil Kumar, Luke J. Mawst, Igor Vurgaftman, Jerry R. Meyer
• High-performance quantum cascade lasers in the 7.3- to 7.8-μm wavelength band using strained active regions
  Richard P. Leavitt, John L. Bradshaw, Kevin M. Lascola, Gregory P. Meissner, Frankie Micalizzi, Frederick J. Towner, John T. Pham
• Transport and gain in a quantum cascade laser: model and equivalent circuit
  Jacob B. Khurgin, Yamac Dikmelik
• Power scaling of quantum cascade lasers via multiemitter beam combining
  Stefan Hugger, Rolf Aidam, Wolfgang Bronner, Frank Fuchs, Rainer Lösch, Quankui Yang, Joachim Wagner, Eugen Romasew, Michael Raab, Hans D. Tholl, Bernd Höfer, Andre L. Matthes
• Loss-reduction in midinfrared photonic crystal quantum cascade lasers using metallic waveguides
  Gangyi Xu, Raffaele Colombelli, Gregoire Beaudoin, Ludovic Largeau, Olivia Mauguin, Isabelle Sagnes
• Strategies toward the realization of two-dimensional broadband and coherent quantum cascade ring laser arrays
  Elvis Mujagić, Clemens Schwarzer, Werner Schrenk, Yu Yao, Jianxin Chen, Claire Gmachl, Gottfried Strasser
• Nonlinear coupling of transverse modes in quantum cascade lasers
  Aleksander K. Wójcik, Nanfang Yu, Laurent Diehl, Federico Capasso, Alexey Belyanin
• Heat transport in terahertz quantum cascade lasers
  Gaetano Scamarcio, Miriam S. Vitiello
• Ridge-width dependence of midinfrared interband cascade laser characteristics
  William Bewley, Chadwick Canedy, Chul Soo Kim, Mijin Kim, J. Ryan Lindle, Joshua Abell, Igor Vurgaftman, Jerry Meyer
• Shortened injector interband cascade lasers for 3.3- to 3.6-μm emission
  Adam Bauer, Matthias Dallner, Martin Kamp, Sven Höfling, Lukas Worschech, Alfred Forchel
• Interband cascade laser–based sensor for ambient CH4
  David M. Sonnenfroh, Richard T. Wainner, Mark G. Allen, Ruth K. Varner
• Thermoelectrically cooled interband cascade laser for field measurements
  Lance E. Christensen, Kamjou Mansour, Rui Q. Yang
• Utilizing broad gain bandwidth in quantum cascade devices
  Miles J. Weida, David Caffey, Jeremy A. Rowlette, David F. Arnone, Timothy Day
• Applications of midinfrared quantum cascade lasers to spectroscopy
  Gus Hancock, Grant Ritchie, Jean-Pierre van Helden, Richard Walker, Damien Weidmann
• Quantum cascade lasers for high-resolution spectroscopy
  Simone Borri, Saverio Bartalini, Pablo Cancio, Iacopo Galli, Giovanni Giusfredi, Davide Mazzotti, Paolo De Natale
• Current status of midinfrared quantum and interband cascade lasers for clinical breath analysis
  Terence H. Risby, Frank K. Tittel
• Application of quantum cascade lasers to high-precision atmospheric trace gas measurements
  J. Barry McManus, Mark S. Zahniser, David D. Nelson, Jr., Joanne H. Shorter, Scott Herndon, Ezra Wood, Rick Wehr
• Quantum cascade laser open-path system for remote sensing of trace gases in Beijing, China
  Anna P. M. Michel, Peter Q. Liu, June K. Yeung, Paul Corrigan, Mary Lynn Baeck, Zifa Wang, Timothy Day, Fred Moshary, Claire F. Gmachl, James A. Smith
• Use of quantum cascade lasers for detection of explosives: progress and challenges
  Christoph Bauer, Ulrike Willer, Wolfgang Schade
• Imaging standoff detection of explosives using widely tunable midinfrared quantum cascade lasers
  Frank Fuchs, Stefan Hugger, Michel Kinzer, Rolf Aidam, Wolfgang Bronner, Rainer Lösch, Quankui Yang, Kai Degreif, Frank Schnürer