Widely Tunable Surface Emitting Quantum Cascade Lasers

Infrared countermeasure and standoff chemical detection applications require a light source with high power output, good beam quality, and a wide tuning range. There are a limited number of viable mid-infrared (3-5 micron wavelength) solutions that can provide these features in a compact and power scalable architecture. In the proposed work, a single chip solution will be developed which will deliver high power output (multi-Watt), is electrically tunable (+/-12% around a central wavelength), and is suitable for low cost manufacturing by incorporating direct surface emission. This emission mechanism does not rely on individual die handling during fabrication, which makes it compatible with low cost production and automated device inspection on a wafer scale.