Development of High- Brightness Continuous-Wave Mid-Infrared Quantum-Cascade Laser
Abstract
The goal of this proposed research is to develop and demonstrate a continuous-wave (cw) orquasi-continuous-wave (qcw) quantum-cascade laser (QCL) operating at room temperature(RT) in mid-infrared (MIR) spectral range with high brightness and to experimentallydemonstrate a path to further brightness scaling. We approach this goal based on our recent demonstration of watt-level cw broad-area (BA) QCLs operating at 4.6?m at RT [1] that we plan to combine with the most robust and reliable method to achieve excellent beam quality via tapered waveguides [2-4]. Our target is to realize a laser emitting within the first atmospheric window with M2 x < 2.4 and cw or qcw power of ?1 W from a single stripe, resulting in a time-averaged brightness of <B> ? 2 MW cm-2 sr-1 at room temperature. A further objective of this work is to demonstrate a path to brightness scaling, specifically to a brightness of <B> ? 20 MW cm-2 sr-1 at room temperature based on, for example, an average power of 10 W with M2x = 2.4 and ?=4.6?m. We choose the BA QCL approach rather than the buried narrow-ridge tapered QCL [3] because the BA laser approach offers the possibility of almost unlimited power [5]. In particular, a path to a power level of 10 W was shown to be realistic using this approach [5].References[1] M. P. Semtsiv and W. T. Masselink, “Above room temperature continuous wave operationof a broad-area quantum-cascade laser”, Appl. Phys. Lett. 109, 203502 (2016).[2] L. Nähle, J. Semmel, W. Kaiser, S. Höfling, and A. Forchel, “Tapered quantum cascadelasers”, Appl. Phys. Lett. 91, 181122 (2007).[3] A. Lyakh, R. Maulini, A. Tsekoun, R. Go, and C. Kumar N. Patel, “Tapered 4.7 ?mquantum cascade lasers with highly strained active region composition delivering over 4.5watts of continuous wave optical power”, Opt. Express 20, 4382 (2012).[4] B. Gökden, T. S. Mansuripur, R. Blanchard, C. Wang, A. Goyal, A. Sanchez-Rubio, G.Turner, and F. Capasso
Document Details
- Document Type
- DoD Grant Award
- Publication Date
- Jul 24, 2019
- Source ID
- FA95501817020
Entities
People
- William Masselink
Organizations
- Air Force Office of Scientific Research
- Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin
- United States Air Force