Picosecond pulses from a mid-infrared interband cascade laser

Abstract

The generation of mid-infrared pulses in monolithic and electrically pumped devices is of great interest for mobile spectroscopic instruments. The gain dynamics of interband cascade lasers (ICL) are promising for mode-locked operation at low threshold currents. Here, we present conclusive evidence for the generation of picosecond pulses in ICLs via active mode-locking. At small modulation power, the ICL operates in a linearly chirped frequency comb regime characterized by strong frequency modulation. Upon increasing the modulation amplitude, the chirp decreases until broad pulses are formed. Careful tuning of the modulation frequency minimizes the remaining chirp and leads to the generation of 3.2 ps pulses.

References in corpus (10)

• Mid-infrared frequency combs
• Ultrafast optical ranging using microresonator soliton frequency combs
• An octave spanning mid-infrared frequency comb generated in a silicon nanophotonic wire waveguide
• Stable mode-locked pulses from mid-infrared semiconductor lasers
• Theory of frequency modulated combs in lasers with spatial hole burning, dispersion and Kerr
• Coherent injection locking of quantum cascade laser frequency combs
• Mid-infrared frequency comb spanning an octave based on an Er fiber laser and difference-frequency generation
• Doppler-free Fourier transform spectroscopy
• On-chip mid-infrared and THz frequency combs for spectroscopy
• A monolithic frequency comb platform based on interband cascade lasers and detectors

Cited by in corpus (5)

• Femtosecond pulses from a mid-infrared quantum cascade laser
• Mode-locked ultrashort pulses from an 8 $\mu$m wavelength semiconductor laser
• Harmonic frequency combs in quantum cascade lasers: time-domain and frequency-domain theory
• Mid-infrared quantum cascade laser frequency combs with a microstrip-like line waveguide geometry
• Germanium-Based Mid-Infrared Photonics