Mid-infrared quantum cascade laser frequency combs based on multi-section waveguides

Abstract

We present quantum cascade laser (QCL) frequency comb devices with engineered waveguides for managing the dispersion. The QCL waveguide consists of multiple sections with different waveguide widths. The narrow and wide sections of the waveguide are designed in a way to compensate the group velocity dispersion (GVD) of each other and thereby produce a flat and slightly negative GVD for the QCL. The QCL exhibits continuous comb operation over a large part of the dynamic range of the laser. Strong and narrow-linewidth intermode beatnotes are achieved in more than 300 mA wide operation current range. The comb device features also considerably high output power (>380 mW) and wide optical bandwidth (>55 cm-1)