Quasi-continuous-wave operations of quantum cascade lasers

Xing Chen; Liwei Cheng; Dingkai Guo; Fow-Sen Choa; Terry Worchesky; Jiun-Yun Li

doi:10.1117/12.873031

22 September 2010 Quasi-continuous-wave operations of quantum cascade lasers

Xing Chen, Liwei Cheng, Dingkai Guo, Fow-Sen Choa, Terry Worchesky, Jiun-Yun Li

Author Affiliations +

Proceedings Volume 7750, Photonics North 2010; 775012 (2010) https://doi.org/10.1117/12.873031
Event: Photonics North 2010, 2010, Niagara Falls, Canada

Abstract

In this paper, quasi-continuous-wave (quasi-CW) operation of quantum cascade lasers (QCLs) is studied. A group of strain-balanced InGaAs/InAlAs QCLs emitting around λ~4.8μm were used in the experiment. QCLs were tested at different driving conditions (i.e. pulsed mode, CW mode and quasi-CW mode) at various temperatures. Experimental measurements show that thermal effect plays an important role in deteriorating QCL performance. This is especially true at high temperatures. At low temperature (~100K), L-I curves with different pulse widths exhibit no significant difference. While at a higher temperature (~200K), we observed that the longer the pulse width, the lower the roll-over power and the worse the laser performance. At 100K, the roll-over power increases as duty cycle increases until it reaches CW operation, indicating that the thermal generation difference for quasi-CW mode and CW mode is negligible. At 200K, however, a maximum roll-over power is about 50mW at duty cycle of 65% corresponding to a CW roll-over power of 40mW. It reveals that at high temperature, quasi-CW operation generates less heat and more average output power. Therefore, quasi-CW operation is obviously a favorable way to achieve high performance operations at high temperature.

Citation Download Citation

Xing Chen, Liwei Cheng, Dingkai Guo, Fow-Sen Choa, Terry Worchesky, and Jiun-Yun Li "Quasi-continuous-wave operations of quantum cascade lasers", Proc. SPIE 7750, Photonics North 2010, 775012 (22 September 2010); https://doi.org/10.1117/12.873031

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