Mid-infrared sensing with a Quantum Cascade Laser (QCL) as a light source is expected to offer a high sensitivity, a short measurement time, and a good portability compared to conventional methods. However, commercially available QCLs have high power-consumption, leading to the necessity for a large cooling system. Therefore, a portable sensor using a QCL have not been realized. To address this issue, recently we had developed a low power-consumption DFB-QCL which enables continuous wave (CW) operation up to 80 ◦C. In this study, we performed gas sensing using our QCL mounted on a Φ 5.6 mm TO-CAN package under uncooled condition. For example, even when the package temperature rose to room temperature +18 ◦C by injecting 180mA current (1.9 W power-consumption) into the uncooled QCL, it could CW operation, and emit output power of 9 mW. Lasing wavelength were stable when the power consumption of the QCL was below 2.2 W, and in this stable wavelength range, about 20 nm wavelength tuning range was obtained by sweeping injection current. We performed mid- infrared gas sensing of methane around 7.4 μm wavelength using a measurement system consisting of the QCL, a gas cell and a thermopile. For this measurement, the QCL was kept uncooled and was driven by CW current, which made a lasing wavelength sweep sufficient for sensing possible. Measured absorption wavelength, intensity, and width under uncooled operation were agreed well with the HITRAN simulation. Sensitivity was obtained about 2.3 ppb under uncooled operation, which was comparable to under cooled operation.
Sensing method with Quantum Cascade Laser (QCL) as a light source is expected to offer a high sensitivity, a short measurement time, and a good portability compared to conventional methods. However, commercially available QCLs have high power-consumption of several W. Therefore, a large power supply is required to drive QCL, and most of the input power is released as heat, leading to the necessity for a large cooling system. For these reasons, portable gas sensors using QCL have not been realized. To address this issue, we had recently developed a low power-consumption DFB-QCL in the 7μm wavelength region. In this study, we developed a compact and low power consumption QCL module with Φ 15.4 mm To-CAN package. The QCL device, a thermoelectric cooler (TEC), a thermistor and a window were assembled in this package. The threshold power-consumption and the maximum output power were 0.97 W and 37 mW at 20°C, respectively under continuous wave driving. In addition, it maintained a single mode operation between 20°C and 80°C without a mode hopping. The performance of this QCL module as a light source for gas sensing was evaluated by measuring the mid-infrared absorption spectrum of the methane gas with a multi pass type gas cell. High sensitive methane gas detection was achieved, which was comparable to that of the conventional high heat load (HHL) packaged QCL module reported by other group. It is expected that a compact and low-cost MIR gas sensor with high-sensitivity can be realized with our QCL module.
Quantum cascade lasers (QCLs) are promising as compact light sources in the mid-infrared region. In order to put them into a practical use, their relatively high threshold currents should be reduced. Facet reflectivity increase by distributed Bragg reflector (DBR) is effective for this purpose, but there have been few reports on DBR-integrated QCLs (DBRQCLs). In this paper, we report a successful operation of a DBR-QCL in 7 μm wavelength region. With the fabrication, an n-InP buffer layer, a core region consisting of AlInAs/GaInAs superlattices, an n-InP cladding layer, and an n-GaInAs contact layer were successively grown on an n-InP substrate using OMVPE in the first growth. Then, the wafer was processed into a mesa-stripe, and it was buried by an Fe-doped InP current-blocking layer to form a buriedheterostructure (BH) waveguide. After that, a DBR in which semiconductor-walls and air-gaps were alternately arranged was formed at the front or end of the cavity by dry-etching the epitaxial layers of the air-gap regions, and thus a DBRQCL was fabricated. A DBR-QCL chip (Mesa-width:10 μm, Cavity-legth:2 mm) which had a DBR-structure consisting of 1 pair of a 3λ/4-thick semiconductor-wall/3λ/4-thick air-gap at the front end and a high reflective facet at the rear end oscillated successfully under continuous-wave condition at 15°C. This is the first report on the InP-based DBR-QCL to our knowledge. The facet reflectivity at the DBR was 66%, which was about two times larger than that of the cleaved facet. This result clearly shows that the DBR-structure is effective for threshold current reduction of QCL.
Quantum cascade lasers (QCLs) are promising light sources for real time high-sensitivity gas sensing in the mid-infrared
region. For the practical use of QCLs as a compact and portable gas sensor, their power-consumption needs to be
reduced. We report a successful operation of a low power-consumption distributed feedback (DFB) QCL. For the
reduction of power consumption, we introduced a vertical-transition structure in a core region to improve carrier
transition efficiency and reduced the core volume. DFB-QCL epitaxial structure was grown by low-pressure OMVPE.
The core region consists of AlInAs/GaInAs superlattices lattice-matched to InP. A first-order Bragg-grating was formed
near the core region to obtain a large coupling coefficiency. A mesa-strip was formed by reactive ion etching and a
buried-heterostructure was fabricated by the regrowth of semi-insulating InP. High-reflective facet coatings were also
performed to decrease the mirror loss for the reduction of the threshold current. A device (5x500μm) operated with a
single mode in the wavelength region from 7.23μm to 7.27μm. The threshold current and threshold voltage under CW
operation at 20 °C were 52mA and 8.4V respectively. A very low threshold power-consumption as low as 0.44 W was
achieved, which is among the lowest values at room temperature to our knowledge.
Focal plane array based on InAs/GaSb type-II superlattice (T2SL) is expected as an alternative to HgCdTe. To get more competitive performance of T2SL detector, we need building up more reliable fabrication process. Especially, mesa formation and passivation with understanding of surface leakage mechanism is critical issue. Generally, the existence of dangling bonds at crystal surface or damaged layer and native oxides on etched mesa sidewall leads to surface leakage currents, which mostly degrade the detector performance. Many researchers adopted SiO2 film as an effective passivation layer, which was deposited by plasma enhanced chemical vapor deposition at low temperature. However, good passivation requires not only stable film, but also an effective surface treatment before passivation. There are few reports, which discuss the relation between treatment before passivation and device characteristics in T2SL photodetectors. In this work, we present dry etching mesa formation and the effect of pretreatment of passivation on T2SL p-i-n photodetector fabrication. We investigate R0A-Perimeter/Area relation and R0A temperature dependence with in-situ plasma treatment prior to the passivation. From results of electrical characterization and interface analysis using STEM, it is recognized that in-situ N2 plasma treatment was effective to surface leakage reduction.
The authors have succeeded in employing nanoimprint lithography (NIL) to form diffraction gratings of distributed
feedback laser diodes (DFB LDs) used in optical communication. We have fabricated more than 300 phase-shifted DFB
LDs on a 2-in. InP substrate. The devices have indicated comparable characteristics including uniformity and reliability
with those fabricated by conventional electron beam lithography. We have also demonstrated a novel concept of a mold
containing various types of grating patterns in a field ("VARI-mold"). By utilizing the new mold, DFB LDs with various
emission wavelengths are formed simultaneously on a wafer. It indicates that one VARI-mold is possible to be applied to
various kinds of product, leading to the cost reduction of the molds and the total NIL process. The results of this study
indicate that NIL is a promising candidate of the production technique for phase-shifted DFB LDs featuring low cost and
high throughput.
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