Since its invention at Bell Labs in the midcurrently offered commercially by several Lucent licensees. This rapid progress was made possible not only by the extremely active worldwide research on band-engineering, but also by the continuous development of molecular beam epitaxy (MBE), the semiconductor growth technique that enables accurate nanometer control and the reproducibility of complex semiconductor structures. Today, QCL technology promises to have a major impact in fields ranging from chemical sensing to free-space telecommunications.This paper presents an overview of QCL technology, with a particular focus on current research activities at Bell Labs. First, the principles of QCL operation are introduced. Then, material growth,