Optomechanical control of quantum cascade laser frequency combs
Name
109391E.pdf
Description
Published version
Size
2.75 MB
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Unknown
Checksum (MD5)
c640b1e2d2d617c97cd3a3f9d0b1c2fb
Author(s)
Burghoff, David Patrick
Han, Ningren
Kapsalidis, Filippos
Henry, Nathan
Beck, Mattias
Khurgin, Jacob
Faist, Jerome
Hu, Qing
Date Issued
March 1, 2019
Publisher
SPIE
Citation
Burghoff, David, Han, Ningren, Kapsalidis, Filippos, Henry, Nathan, Beck, Mattias et al. 2019. "Optomechanical control of quantum cascade laser frequency combs."
Version
Final published version
Abstract
© 2019 SPIE. Quantum cascade laser-based frequency combs have attracted much attention as of late for applications in sensing and metrology, especially as sources for chip-scale spectroscopy at mid-infrared fingerprint wavelengths. A frequency comb is a light source whose lines are evenly-spaced, and only two frequencies are needed to describe the system - the offset and the repetition rate. Because chip-scale combs have large repetition rates, for many spectroscopic applications is important to be able to change both parameters independently, without substantially changing the comb spectrum or spectral structure. Although it is possible to modulate both the offset and the repetition rate of a comb by tuning the laser current and temperature, both properties affect the laser by changing its index of refraction, and both frequencies will be affected. Here, we show that by integrating a mirror onto a MEMS comb drive, the dispersion and group delay associated with a quantum cascade comb's cavity can be modulated at kilohertz speeds. Because the MEMS mirror primarily affects the group delay of the cavity, it is able to adjust the comb's repetition rate while leaving the offset frequency mostly unaffected. Since this adjustment is linearly independent from current adjustments and can be adjusted quickly, this provides an avenue for mutual stabilization of both parameters. In addition, we show that dynamic modulation of the comb drive is able to allow the laser to recover from comb-destroying feedback, making the resulting comb considerably more robust under realistic conditions.
MIT Department
Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science
Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Research Laboratory of Electronics
Terms of Use
Article is made available in accordance with the publisher's policy and may be subject to US copyright law. Please refer to the publisher's site for terms of use.
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DOI of Published Version
10.1117/12.2508316
