Abstract
The quantum cascade laser has evolved to be a compact, powerful source of coherent mid-infrared light; however, its fast gain dynamics strongly restricts the formation of ultrashort pulses. As such, the shortest pulses reported so far were limited to a few picoseconds with some hundreds of milliwatts of peak power, strongly narrowing their applicability for time-resolved and nonlinear experiments. Here we demonstrate an approach capable of producing near-transform-limited subpicosecond pulses with several watts of peak power. Starting from a frequency-modulated phase-locked state, ultrashort high-peak-power pulses are generated via spectral filtering, gain modulation-induced spectral broadening and external pulse compression. We assess their temporal nature by means of a novel asynchronous sampling method, coherent beat note interferometry and interferometric autocorrelation. These results open new pathways for nonlinear physics in the mid-infrared. Show more
Permanent link
https://doi.org/10.3929/ethz-b-000516493Publication status
publishedExternal links
Journal / series
Nature PhotonicsVolume
Pages / Article No.
Publisher
NatureSubject
Frequency combs; Mid-infrared photonics; Quantum cascade lasers; Ultrafast lasers; Ultrafast photonicsOrganisational unit
03759 - Faist, Jérôme / Faist, Jérôme
02205 - FIRST-Lab / FIRST Center for Micro- and Nanoscience
Funding
176584 - High-resolution QCL frequency comb spectrometer for the detection of trace gases and their isotopes (SNF)
165639 - Monolithic, self referenced quantum cascade laser frequency comb (SNF)
820419 - Quantum simulation and entanglement engineering in quantum cascade laser frequency combs (EC)
Related publications and datasets
Is supplemented by: http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.11850/504681
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