Advanced Fabrication of Single-Mode and Multi-Wavelength MIR-QCLs

Süess, Martin; Peretti, Romain; Liang, Yong; Wolf, Johanna; Bonzon, Christopher; Hinkov, Borislav; Nida, Selamnesh; Jouy, Pierre; Metaferia, Wondwosen; Lourdudoss, Sebastian; Beck, Mattias; Faist, Jérôme

doi:10.3390/photonics3020026

Cited by 22 publications

(18 citation statements)

References 63 publications

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“…The NDFB QCLs are fabricated following an inverted buried hetero-structure protocol [26,27] Fig. 1b a microscope image of the DFB etching result is shown.…”

Section: Device Fabricationmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Dual-wavelength DFB quantum cascade lasers: sources for multi-species trace gas spectroscopy

et al. 2018

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We report on the design, fabrication, and performance of dual-wavelength distributed-feedback (DFB) quantum cascade lasers (QCLs) emitting at several wavelengths in the mid-infrared (mid-IR) spectrum. In this work, two new designs are presented: for the first one, called "Neighbour" DFB, two single-mode DFB QCLs are fabricated next to each other, with minimal lateral distance, to allow efficient beam-coupling into multi-pass gas cells. In addition, the minimal distance allows either laser to be used as an integrated heater for the other, allowing to extend the tuning range of its neighbour without any electrical cross-talk. For the second design, the Vernier effect was used to realize a switchable DFB laser, with two target wavelengths which are distant by about 300 cm −1. These devices are promising laser sources for Tunable Diode Laser Absorption Spectroscopy applications targeting simultaneous detection of multiple gasses, with distant spectral features, in compact and mobile setups. This article is part of the topical collection "Mid-infrared and THz Laser Sources and Applications" guest edited by Wei Ren, Paolo

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“…The NDFB QCLs are fabricated following an inverted buried hetero-structure protocol [26,27] Fig. 1b a microscope image of the DFB etching result is shown.…”

Section: Device Fabricationmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The dual-wavelength Vernier DFB QCLs are fabricated following an inverted buried hetero-structure protocol [26,27], using the same active region as described in Sect. 3 and the same with procedure and parameters as in Sect.…”

Section: Device Fabricationmentioning

confidence: 99%

Dual-wavelength DFB quantum cascade lasers: sources for multi-species trace gas spectroscopy

et al. 2018

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“…With respect to photonics, many efforts have been made to design multi-wavelength QCL solutions. [6][7][8] Such approaches a) Author to whom correspondence should be addressed: bela.tuzson@ empa.ch significantly reduce the amount of optical elements that are otherwise needed for beam combination. 9 Other considerable elements limiting mobile sensing applications are related to the laser driving and signal processing.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Laser driving and data processing concept for mobile trace gas sensing: Design and implementation

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Tuzson

Scheidegger

et al. 2018

Review of Scientific Instruments

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High precision mobile sensing of multi-species gases is greatly demanded in a wide range of applications. Although quantum cascade laser absorption spectroscopy demonstrates excellent field-deployment capabilities for gas sensing, the implementation of this measurement technique into sensor-like portable instrumentation still remains challenging. In this paper, two crucial elements, the laser driving and data acquisition electronics, are addressed. Therefore, we exploit the benefits of the time-division multiplexed intermittent continuous wave driving concept and the real-time signal pre-processing capabilities of a commercial System-on-Chip (SoC, Red Pitaya). We describe a re-designed current driver that offers a universal solution for operating a wide range of multi-wavelength quantum cascade laser device types and allows stacking for the purpose of multiple laser configurations. Its adaptation to the various driving situations is enabled by numerous field programmable gate array (FPGA) functionalities that were developed on the SoC, such as flexible generation of a large variety of synchronized trigger signals and digital inputs/outputs (DIOs). The same SoC is used to sample the spectroscopic signal at rates up to 125 MS/s with 14-bit resolution. Additional FPGA functionalities were implemented to enable on-board averaging of consecutive spectral scans in real-time, resulting in optimized memory bandwidth and hardware resource utilisation and autonomous system operation. Thus, we demonstrate how a cost-effective, compact, and commercial SoC can successfully be adapted to obtain a fully operational research-grade laser spectrometer. The overall system performance was examined in a spectroscopic setup by analyzing low pressure absorption features of CO at 4.3 μm.

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“…These are realized with electrically tunable DFB devices or arrays of DFB devices. A detailed description of design, fabrication, and performance of the various solutions is given in recent reviews [12][13][14] and references therein.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Multi-species trace gas sensing with dual-wavelength QCLs

et al. 2018

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Instrumentation for environmental monitoring of gaseous pollutants and greenhouse gases tends to be complex, expensive, and energy demanding, because every compound measured relies on a specific analytical technique. This work demonstrates an alternative approach based on mid-infrared laser absorption spectroscopy with dual-wavelength quantum cascade lasers (QCLs). The combination of two dual-and one single-DFB QCL yields high-precision measurements of CO (0.08 ppb), CO 2 (100 ppb), NH 3 (0.02 ppb), NO (0.4 ppb), NO 2 (0.1 ppb), N 2 O (0.045 ppb), and O 3 (0.11 ppb) simultaneously in a compact setup (45 × 45 cm 2 ). The lasers are driven time-multiplexed in intermittent continuous wave mode with a repetition rate of 1 kHz. The individual spectra are real-time averaged (1 s) by an FPGA-based data acquisition system. The instrument was assessed for environmental monitoring and benchmarked with reference instrumentation to demonstrate its potential for compact multi-species trace gas sensing.

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Advanced Fabrication of Single-Mode and Multi-Wavelength MIR-QCLs

Cited by 22 publications

References 63 publications

Dual-wavelength DFB quantum cascade lasers: sources for multi-species trace gas spectroscopy

Dual-wavelength DFB quantum cascade lasers: sources for multi-species trace gas spectroscopy

Laser driving and data processing concept for mobile trace gas sensing: Design and implementation

Multi-species trace gas sensing with dual-wavelength QCLs

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