Continuously tunable singlemode VECSEL at 3.3 µm wavelength for spectroscopy

Abstract

A singlemode tunable vertical external cavity surface emitting laser (VECSEL) has been realised. The VECSEL can be tuned continuously over more than 80 nm from 3.22 to 3.3 mm wavelength. Tuning is performed by changing the cavity length with a piezoelectric driver. Covering this wavelength range allows various potential applications, especially for gas spectroscopy of organic compounds. The VECSEL is optically pumped, and emits a maximum output power of 20 mW p when cooled with a Peltier element to 2208C. The active medium consist of PbSe quantum wells embedded in Pb 12x Sr x Se (x ¼ 0.08) barrier layers and is grown on a Si-substrate.

Integrated Nanophotonic Waveguide-Based Devices for IR and Raman Gas Spectroscopy

“…This strategy has been applied most particularly in high-end trace gas sensors in the traditional gas cell configurations and their associated derivations involving optical cavities (such as cavity ringdown spectroscopy, cavity-enhanced absorption spectroscopy, and noise-immune cavity-enhanced opticalheterodyne molecular spectroscopy). Advances in MIR photonics over the last two decades have brought about high-quality laser diode sources based on interband cascade lasers (ICLs) [7,8], quantum cascade lasers (QCLs) [9,10], vertical-external-cavity surface-emitting lasers (VECSEL) [11][12][13], and frequency comb lasers [14,15]. The possibility of integrating light sources into chip devices has made them particularly suited for use in waveguidebased spectroscopy devices [11,16,17].…”

3–4.5 μm continuously tunable single mode VECSEL

“…Its single emission mode is tunable over more than 100 nm around 5.2 µm. By using active layers based on PbSe QW in Pb-SrSe host material, single-mode operation near RT has been achieved [6]. The maximum operation temperature for multimode emission so far is >50°C [7].…”

Broadly tunable mid-infrared VECSEL for multiple components hydrocarbon gas sensing

“…Today's infrared light sources around 3,000 cm -1 include blackbody emitters, nonlinear optical converters [6][7][8][9][10], interband (ICL) [11][12][13] or quantum cascade lasers (QCL) [14,15], distributed feedback diode lasers (DFB) [16,17], and more recently mid-IR vertical-external-cavity surface-emitting lasers (VECSELs) [18][19][20]. Blackbody emitters have a low spectral density, and nonlinear optical converters like optical parametric oscillators (OPOs) and difference frequency generation (DFG) are of high cost, bulky, and complicated to set up.…”

“…The developed system is evaluated using mixtures of the target volatile hydrocarbons and water vapor. The VECSEL [18][19][20] is based on narrow band gap IV-VI semiconductors (lead chalcogenides) and is pumped by a 1.55-lm diode laser. The laser consists of a flat PbEuTe/ EuTe bottom mirror, a IV-VI-based active layer, and an external top mirror.…”