Injection locking of mid‐infrared quantum cascade laser at 14 GHz, by direct microwave modulation

St-Jean, M. Renaudat; Amanti, Maria I.; Bernard, Alice; Calvar, Ariane; Bismuto, A.; Gini, E.; Beck, Mattias; Faist, Jérôme; Liu, H. C.; Sirtori, Carlo

doi:10.1002/lpor.201300189

Cited by 59 publications

(42 citation statements)

References 20 publications

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“…Recently, significant progress has been reported in the high‐speed behavior of quantum devices based on ISBT, for instance, advanced design based on QCL embedded into microstrip line showed direct modulation up to 14 GHz. [ 19 ] The lasers used in this article are standard buried‐heterostructures of about 3 µm thick InGaAs/InAlAs active region grown on InP substrate by molecular‐beam epitaxy at a emitting wavelength of 4.7 µm. Ridge lasers are processed with a width between 4 and 10 µm.…”

Section: Sample Description and High‐speed Behaviormentioning

confidence: 99%

Tunability of the Free‐Spectral Range by Microwave Injection into a Mid‐Infrared Quantum Cascade Laser

Rodríguez

Mottaghizadeh

Gacemi

et al. 2020

Laser & Photonics Reviews

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The free‐spectral range (FSR) of quantum cascade lasers (QCLs) emitting at 4.7 µm can be tuned through direct microwave modulation. The intrinsic short carrier lifetime of inter‐subband transitions, along with impedance matched electrical packaging, allows a high‐speed modulation up to more than 30 GHz. A significant broadening and flattening of the lasing spectrum is observed under radio frequency (RF) injection with frequencies close to the round‐trip cavity. An accurate analysis of the high resolution spectra of the laser shows a comb‐like regime for both free‐running and RF modulated QCLs, if the modulation frequency is within the locking‐range of the device. One of the main advantages of collecting high‐resolution mid‐infrared spectra, over the plain investigation of the beatnote in the microwave region, is the access to all the longitudinal modes and thus the accurate measure of the FSR over the whole optical spectrum. The use of high‐resolution spectroscopy provides an in‐depth and comprehensive analysis of lasing spectra under microwave modulations.

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Section: Sample Description and High‐speed Behaviormentioning

confidence: 99%

Tunability of the Free‐Spectral Range by Microwave Injection into a Mid‐Infrared Quantum Cascade Laser

Rodríguez

Mottaghizadeh

Gacemi

et al. 2020

Laser & Photonics Reviews

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“…Consequently, an external RF modulation close to the roundtrip frequency injected into the QCL should be able to influence or even lock the electrical beatnote. This concept is called electrical injection locking and was demonstrated by embedding a Fabry-Pérot QCL into a microstrip RF waveguide 16 . While this result proves that the collective action of the beatings of adjacent comb lines can be locked, it remains unclear to what extent the single beatings are locked and what their phases are.…”

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confidence: 99%

Coherent injection locking of quantum cascade laser frequency combs

et al. 2018

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Quantum cascade laser (QCL) frequency combs are a promising candidate for chemical sensing and biomedical diagnostics, requiring only milliseconds of acquisition time to record absorption spectra without any moving parts 1,2,3,4 . They are electrically pumped and have a small footprint, making them an ideal platform for on-chip integration 5 . Until now, optical feedback is fatal for frequency comb generation in QCLs and destroys intermodal coherence 6 . This property imposes strict limits on the possible degree of integration. Here, we demonstrate coherent injection locking of the repetition frequency to a stabilized RF oscillator. For the first time, we prove that the spectrum of the injection locked QCL can be phase-locked, resulting in the generation of a frequency comb. We show that injection locking is not only a versatile tool for all-electrical frequency stabilization, but also mitigates the fatal effect of optical feedback on the frequency comb. A prototype self-detected dualcomb setup consisting only of an injection locked dualcomb chip, a lens and a mirror demonstrates the enormous potential for on-chip dual-comb spectroscopy. These results pave the way to miniaturized and all-solid-state midinfrared spectrometers.

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“…In particular, some experimental evidence show that embedding the QCL comb in a RF microstrip waveguide improves the coherence of the beatnote [67] while this effect is not predicted by the numerical simulations [60]. A more complete theory would incorporate the second (slower) time scale of the injection process as well as a χ (2) interaction where a mode is shifted in energy by the interaction with the RF modulation at the round trip frequency.…”

Section: Theoretical Models For Comb Operationmentioning

confidence: 99%

Quantum Cascade Laser Frequency Combs

Faist

Villares²,

Scalari³

et al. 2016

Nanophotonics

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198

137

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It was recently demonstrated that broadband quantum cascade lasers can operate as frequency combs. As such, they operate under direct electrical pumping at both mid-infrared and THz frequencies, making them very attractive for dual-comb spectroscopy. Performance levels are continuously improving, with average powers over 100 mW and frequency coverage of 100 cm −1 in the midinfrared region. In the THz range, 10 mW of average power and 600 GHz of frequency coverage are reported. As a result of the very short upper state lifetime of the gain medium, the mode proliferation in these sources arises from four-wave mixing rather than saturable absorption. As a result, their optical output is characterized by the tendency of small intensity modulation of the output power, and the relative phases of the modes to be similar to the ones of a frequency modulated laser. Recent results include the proof of comb operation down to a metrological level, the observation of a Schawlow-Townes broadened linewidth, as well as the first dual-comb spectroscopy measurements. The capability of the structure to integrate monothically nonlinear optical elements as well as to operate as a detector shows great promise for future chip integration of dual-comb systems.

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Injection locking of mid‐infrared quantum cascade laser at 14 GHz, by direct microwave modulation

Cited by 59 publications

References 20 publications

Tunability of the Free‐Spectral Range by Microwave Injection into a Mid‐Infrared Quantum Cascade Laser

Tunability of the Free‐Spectral Range by Microwave Injection into a Mid‐Infrared Quantum Cascade Laser

Coherent injection locking of quantum cascade laser frequency combs

Quantum Cascade Laser Frequency Combs

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