QUANTUM CASCADE LASER

Submitted to:
Miss Ambreen
Submitted by:

• Nida Shahbaz 323(009031)

BS (Hons) Chemistry
8th semester
Session (2013-2017)
 CONTENTS

Kind of laser
Range of emission
Firstly demonstration
Material systems
Operating principle
Inter band and intersubband
Characteristics
types of QCLaser
Applications
 QUANTUM CASCADE LASER

Kind of laser:-
Quantum Cascade Lasers (QCL) are semiconductor lasers.

Emission portion:
Emit in the mid- to far-infrared(wavelength range from 2.63 μm to 250 μm)
portion of the electromagnetic spectrum and were first demonstrated by
Jerome Faist.
Material systems:-
InGaAs/InAlAs :quantum well depth of 520 meV emit at 3.5-24 μm
InGaAs/AlAsSb material system has quantum wells 1.6 eV deep and has
been used to fabricate QCLs emitting at 3 μm.
InAs/AlSb QCLs have quantum wells 2.1 eV deep
and electroluminescence at wavelengths as short as 2.5 μm has been
observed.
Principle of operation:-
Unlike typical interband semiconductor laser that emit electromagnetic
radiation through the recombination of electron hole pair across the
material band gap, QCLs are unipolar and laser emission is achieved
through the use of intersubband transitions in a repeated stack of
semiconductor multiple quantum well hetrostructure, an idea first
proposed in the paper "Possibility of amplification of electromagnetic
waves in a semiconductor with a superlattice" by R.F. Kazarinov and R.A.
Suris in 1971.
Intersubband vs. interband transitions:-
Typical diode laser:-
Within a bulk semiconductor crystal,electrons may occupy states in
one of two continuous energy bands - the valence band,which is heavily
populated with low energy electrons and the conduction band,which is
sparsely populated with high energy electrons. The two energy bands are
separated by an energy band gap in which there are no permitted states
available for electrons to occupy. Conventional semiconductor laser
diodes generate light by a single photon being emitted when a high energy
electron in the conduction band recombines with a hole in the valence
band. The energy of the photon and hence the emission wavelength of
laser diodes is therefore determined by the band gap of the material
system used.

interband transitions in conventional semiconductor lasers emit a single photon.

Quantum cascade laser:-
A QCL however does not use bulk semiconductor materials in its
optically active region. Instead it consists of a periodic series of thin
layers of varying material composition forming a super lattice. The
superlattice introduces a varying electric potential across the length of the
device, meaning that there is a varying probability of electrons occupying
different positions over the length of the device. This is referred to as one
dimension multiple quantum well confinement and leads to the splitting
of the band of permitted energies into a number of discrete electronic
subbands. These multi quantum well structures form repeated stages
where each stage contains an active region and a carrier injector region.
Figure illustrates the generic conduction band profile in two adjacent
stages of a QCL under an applied electric field.

A generic conduction band profile in two stages of a QCL

Due to the quantum confinement multiple minibands are formed in the

injector region, whereas in the active region discrete energy levels arise.
Coupling of the wells and carrier transfer is provided by quantum
mechanical tunneling.
The upper lasing level 3 in the active region is filled by electrons from the
injector region, that tunnel through the barriers. Radiative transitions from
the upper level to the lower lasing level 2 occur if the population
inversion condition is satisfied, i.e. the occupation of the upper state
exceeds the number of electrons in the lower state significantly. In other
words, the relaxation time τ32 from the upper state into the lower state has
to be greater than the lifetime of the lower state τ21 , i.e. τ32 > τ21.
Subsequently, the electrons escape by means of tunneling into the injector
region of the adjacent stage.Typical tunneling times are of the order of
sub-picoseconds and can be approximated as:
An injected electron can theoretically generate as many photons as stages
are present. The cascade of light generated in this way makes the optical
power proportional to the number of stages, which points up the
capability of QCLs.
Wavelength depends on:-
So far, we have described the principle of population inversion between
the upper and lower layer,by suitable design of the layer thicknesses it is
possible to engineer a population inversion between two subbands in the
system which is required in order to achieve laser emission. Because the
position of the energy levels in the system is primarily determined by the
layer thicknesses and not the material, it is possible to tune the emission
wavelength of QCLs over a wide range in the same material system.
Additionally, in semiconductor laser diodes, electrons and holes are
annihilated after recombining across the band gap and can play no further
part in photon generation. However, in a unipolar QCL, once an electron
has undergone an intersubband transition and emitted a photon in one
period of the superlattice, it can tunnel into the next period of the structure
where another photon can be emitted. This process of a single electron
causing the emission of multiple photons as it traverses through the QCL
structure gives rise to the name cascade and makes a quantum efficiency
of greater than unity possible which leads to higher output powers than
semiconductor laser diodes.
 In quantum cascade structures, electrons undergo intersubband transitions
and photons are emitted. The electrons tunnel to the next period of the structure
and the process repeats.

Characteristics of QCL:-

wavelength is determined by thickness rather than material

highpower
long life time
robust fabrication
low failure rate

Laser types:-
Although the quantum cascade gain medium can be used to produce light
in a super luminescent configuration,it is most commonly used in
combination with an optical cavity to form a lasers.
Fabry–Perot lasers
Distributed feedback lasers
External cavity lasers
Extended tuning devices

Applications:-
Specific examples of applications where QCLs excel include:
 In gas sensing and measurement. Systems based on tunnable
lasers.QCLs can be used to measure multiple gas species, and
narrowly targeted systems can detect and measure gas
concentrations in the parts-per-trillion range.Remote sensing of
numerous gas species, including CO, CO2, NH3, CH4, NOX, and
SO2.
Because they require relatively low power and are so small, QCL-
based systems replace larger and slower FTIR and mass
spectroscopy systems for both lab and field work.
Ruggedized applications include continuous exhaust monitoring on
an industrial basis, such as in-the-stack measurements of pollutants,
or well-head detection of byproduct gases at petroleum drilling
platforms.
High-power 4 µm QCLs used in heat-seeking missile counter
measures Improvised Explosive Devices (IEDs).
Real-time monitoring of industrial exhaust emissions for process
control.

Remote sensing of industrial exhaust stacks for environmental

regulation enforcement
Compact and fast airborne instruments for monitoring and
measuring trace atmospheric gases in studies relating to global
climate change
QCL-based systems are also finding application in the growing
field of medical diagnostics. Trace gases present on a patient's
breath can indicate diabetes, asthma and other respiratory issues,
kidney and liver dysfunction, and other indicators are being
discovered regularly. Such an application requires extremely fast
sampling times, relatively small size, and accurate results in order to
avoid misdiagnosis.
References:-
● 20Overview%20on%20Quantum%20Cascade%20Lasers_
%20Origins%20and%20Development%20_%20InTechOpen.html
● Quantum%20cascade%20laser%20-%20Wikipedia.html
● Fundamentals.html