Bell Labs researchers build high-performance, ultra-broadband semiconductor laser

摘要

The new laser belongs to a class of high-- performance semiconductor lasers - known as quantum cascade (QC) lasers - that were invented at Bell Labs in 1994 by Federico Capasso, Alfred Cho and their collaborators. A QC laser operates much like an electronic waterfall. When an electric current flows through the laser, electrons cascade down an energy staircase; every time they hit a step, they emit a photon of infrared light.