High Average Power First Order Distributed Feedback Quantum Cascade Lasers

The book describes the most advanced techniques for generating coherent light in the mid-infrared region of the spectrum. These techniques represent diverse areas of photonics and include heterojunction semiconductor lasers, quantum cascade lasers, tunable crystalline lasers, fiber lasers, Raman lasers, and optical parametric laser sources. Offering authoritative reviews by internationally recognized experts, the book provides a wealth of information on the essential principles and methods of the generation of coherent mid-infrared light and on some of its applications. The instructive nature of the book makes it an excellent text for physicists and practicing engineers who want to use mid-infrared laser sources in spectroscopy, medicine, remote sensing and other fields, and for researchers in various disciplines requiring a broad introduction to the subject.

A state-of-the-art overview of this rapidly expanding field, featuring fundamental theory, practical applications, and real-life examples.

This book describes the physics, fabrication technology, and applications of the quantum cascade laser.

This thesis presents the first comprehensive analysis of quantum cascade laser nonlinear dynamics and includes the first observation of a temporal chaotic behavior in quantum cascade lasers. It also provides the first analysis of optical instabilities in the mid-infrared range. Mid-infrared quantum cascade lasers are unipolar semiconductor lasers, which have become widely used in applications such as gas spectroscopy, free-space communications or optical countermeasures. Applying external perturbations such as optical feedback or optical injection leads to a strong modification of the quantum cascade laser properties. Optical feedback impacts the static properties of mid-infrared Fabry–Perot and distributed feedback quantum cascade lasers, inducing power increase; threshold reduction; modification of the optical spectrum, which can become either single- or multimode; and enhanced beam quality in broad-area transverse multimode lasers. It also leads to a different dynamical behavior, and a quantum cascade laser subject to optical feedback can oscillate periodically or even become chaotic. A quantum cascade laser under external control could therefore be a source with enhanced properties for the usual mid-infrared applications, but could also address new applications such as tunable photonic oscillators, extreme events generators, chaotic Light Detection and Ranging (LIDAR), chaos-based secured communications or unpredictable countermeasures.