Optofluidic tuning of quantum cascade lasers

摘要

Quantum cascade lasers are the light source of choice in the mid-infrared for many applications, particularly as advances in the last few years have demonstrated high power continuous-wave operation at room temperature. QCLs have been employed in sensing of trace gases; we are now developing the tools to use them as sensitive chemical and biological detectors for liquids. To this end, we demonstrate the compatibility of QCLs with elastomer-based microfluidics and tuning of QCLs using liquids with different refractive indices. We look to increasing sensitivity to liquids with ultra high-Q photonic crystal based QCLs.