We demonstrate measurements of the ␣ factor of a distributed-feedback quantum cascade laser (QCL) by using a newly modified self-mixing interferometric technique exploring the laser itself as the detector. We find a strong dependence of the ␣ factor on the injection current, ranging from −0.44 at 120 mA to 2.29 at 180 mA, which can be attributed to the inherent physics of QCLs. © 2006 Optical Society of America OCIS codes: 140.5960, 140.3070, 040.5570, 120.3180. Today, quantum cascade lasers (QCLs) have evolved to be among the most important light sources in the mid-infrared (MIR) to far-infrared (FIR) wavelength range. The lasing transition in QCLs occurs between subsequently cascaded quantized energy levels within the conduction band. Hence the emitted wavelength does not depend on the energy bandgap as in conventional semiconductor lasers, but it is determined by the energy difference of discrete levels in the conduction band originating from the bandgapengineered design of the laser device.1 With the advent of this new type of laser structure, a series of questions on the laser performance and the relevant physical mechanisms have been brought up. For example, it has been found experimentally, and verified theoretically, that the scaling behavior of the intensity noise as a function of the emitted power is different with respect to interband lasers, resulting directly from the cascaded level scheme and the different carrier lifetime.2,3 The linewidth enhancement factor (␣ factor) determines the dynamics of semiconductor lasers, because it accounts for the coupling between amplitude and phase of the light as defined in Eq. (1),Here, r and i are the real and the imaginary parts of the susceptibility, respectively, and n is the carrier density. 4 The ␣ factor therefore describes how gain and refractive index change with respect to each other when the carrier density varies.5 From the very beginning of the first technological realizations of QCLs, there has been an urgent need to measure the ␣ factor of QCLs and to check whether the particular level scheme gives rise to a different physics, e.g., ifQCLs exhibit an ␣ factor close to zero as expected for a nondetuned atomiclike level scheme. The standard technique used for interband semiconductor lasers is the Hakki-Paoli method, which relies on measuring the wavelength shift of the longitudinal laser modes below threshold. However, this method gives only access to ␣ values below threshold, and for low ␣ values its accuracy may be affected by temperature effects. 6 An approach based on injection locking 7 is the only method, to date, that has been applied to QCLs above threshold.Our purpose in this paper is fourfold. First, we apply the self-mixing (SM) technique to the MIR spectral range using QCLs. Second, by directly using the laser itself as a detector instead of an external photodetector, we are able to obtain nice and clean SM signals. Third, by applying a modified analysis method, we are able to extract the ␣ factor from the measurement of these wavefo...

We present measurements of the linewidth enhancement factor of a distributed feedback quantum cascade laser (DFB-QCL) using the so-called self-mixing technique. The linewidth enhancement factor is investigated by analyzing optical feedback induced changes of the emission properties of the laser. We will demonstrate that our self-mixing setup works well with QCLs in the mid infrared wavelength regime, and that it is possible to use the obtained signal to extract the linewidth enhancement factor. We present a setup that records the self-mixing signal with the voltage signal across the laser device using the laser as a detector itself. In this contribution we will show the advantages of this measurement technique. First measurements of the linewidth enhancement factor yield values that rise from 0.24 to 2.6 with an increase of the injection current of the QCL. We will discuss the influence of the injection current on the linewidth enhancement factor

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We investigate the performance of a modern hollow-core optical fibre coupled to a GaAs-based quantum cascade laser (QCL) emitting at a wavelength of 10.7 µm. The QCL is operated in pulsed operation with current pulses of 100 ns width at a repetition rate of 10 kHz at a heat sink temperature of 258 K. The emitted light is collected by a f/1.6 ellipsoidal mirror and focused onto the hollow-core optical fibre. The investigated fibre is 2 m long and is designed for a transmission wavelength of 10.6 µm. After the transmission through fibre, the light is collected by a ZnSe-aspheric lens. We investigate the transmission efficiency of the hollow-core optical fibre and its influence on the intensity noise properties by measuring the transmitted optical peak power in relation to the emitted optical peak power. We find a total transmission loss of 6.25 dB. We then analyze the influence of this hollow-core optical fibre on the intensity noise properties of the QCL in terms of the relative intensity noise (RIN). We find that for the same detected optical peak powers the RIN of the optical power transmitted through the fibre is about 4 dB·Hz −1 lower than the RIN of the emitted optical power. We attribute this reduction of the RIN level to a random selection process of photons due to the losses of the fibre which alters the intensity noise towards the standard quantum limit.