Electrical engineers fire quantum cascade laser at 120 watts

Electrical Engineers have achieved a breakthrough in quantum cascade laser (QCL) output power, by delivering 120 watts from a single device at room temperature.

QCLs differ from other lasers, such as those at work in DVD players called interband semiconductor lasers. The QCL is an intersubband device that uses electrons to work.

 Furthermore, QCLs have a linewidth enhancement factor that is close to zero, where conventional lasers have a factor of two or three. This difference means that the QCL has more potential in terms of power scaling with broad-area devices.

The researchers at Northwestern University, in the US, believe the laser could be useful for infrared countermeasure, a way of misguiding incoming missiles to protect commercial and military aircrafts.

The team at the Center for Quantum Devices at Northwestern found that QCL is remarkably resistant to filiamentation – the phenomenon that limits the ridge of width experienced by conventional lasers, meaning that the engineers could increase the broad area of the QCL. Therefore, the output power at room temperature of the device could peak as high as 120 watts.

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