Intensity modulation response of injection-locked quantum cascade lasers

摘要

The intensity modulation (IM) property of an optical injection-locked quantum cascade (QC) laser is theoretically investigated via a three-level rate equation model. The locking regime is obtained based on the local bifurcation theory. It is shown that the injection-locked QC laser exhibits a rather flat modulation response at zero detuning, whose bandwidth increases with the injection level. In contrast to interband lasers, both positive and negative detunings enhance the modulation bandwidth. Besides, a large linewidth enhancement factor (LEF) can increase the peak amplitude in the response. Moreover, it is found that no frequency dip occurs in the IM response of injection-locked QC lasers.