Wavelength selection and spectral narrowing of distributed Bragg reflector quantum cascade lasers up to peak optical power

Abstract

We investigate the impact of Distributed Bragg Reflectors (DBR), ion-milled directly on top of Fabry-Perot type Quantum Cascade (QC) laser ridges, following fabrication and processing of the devices and observe a more than 10-fold reduction in spectral full-width-half-maximum (FWHM) and a maximum of 20dB side-mode suppression ratio (SMSR), maintained to peak optical power. As predicted by our model, and experimentally verified, there is a "sweet-spot" in terms of grating length, ~200 μm on a 3 mm long laser ridge, and a trade-off between spectral narrowing and output power, set by the grating depth, varied from 1.8 to 2.5 μm.