Distributed feedback quantum cascade laser arrays for chemical sensing

Quantum cascade lasers (QCLs) are unipolar semiconductor lasers based on intersubband transitions in heterostructures. The emission wavelengths of mid-infrared QCLs span from 3 to 24 μm and cover the "fingerprint" region of molecular absorption. This makes QCLs particularly interesting for spectroscopic applications. Single-mode emission is required for most spectroscopic applications. To achieve single-mode emission, QCLs can be made as distributed feedback (DFB) lasers or integrated with an external cavity (EC). EC-QCLs are widely tunable but are cumbersome and complex to build; they require high quality anti-reflection coatings, well-aligned external optical components including a grating for tuning, and piezoelectric controllers. DFB-QCLs are very compact and can be readily micro-fabricated, but a single DFB-QCL has limited tunability of ∼ 10 cm -1 . In this thesis, I developed arrays of DFB-QCLs as widely-tunable, single-mode laser sources, and I demonstrated their applications to chemical sensing. I demonstrated a DFB-QCL array with 32 single-mode lasers on a single chip, emitting in a range over 85 cm -1 near 9μm wavelength, operated pulsed at room temperature. The DFB-QCL array can be continuously tuned, since the separation in nominal emission frequencies is small enough that we can use temperature tuning to span the frequency gaps between adjacent lasers in the array. To show the applications for chemical sensing, absorption spectroscopy was performed using the DFB-QCL array; the absorption spectra of several fluids were obtained, with results that were comparable to conventional Fourier transform infrared spectrometers. Achieving overlapped beams at extended distances can be important for a number of applications envisioned for DFB-QCL arrays, particularly remote sensing. Using the technique of spectral beam combining, the total angular divergence of the DFB-QCL array was reduced to less than 2 milliradians, which is 40 times better than without beam combining. Using the beam-combined array, absorption spectroscopy was performed at a distance of 6 m from the laser chip. An ultra-broadband DFB-QCL array was developed to further increase the coverage and tuning range. The array emitted in a range over 220 cm -1 near 9 μm wavelength, operated pulsed at room temperature.