First- and second-order distributed feedback AlGaAs/GaAs quantum cascade lasers

Summary form only. Quantum cascade lasers (QCLs) are powerful light emitters in the mid infrared. For chemical sensing single mode emission is advantageous. We fabricated first and second order distributed feedback (DFB) lasers to achieve single mode emission around /spl lambda/=10 /spl mu/m, and further surface emission for the second order DFB QCLs. The emission wavelength can be shifted continuously according to the temperature dependence of the effective refractive index. The active material consists typically of 30 periods of AlGaAs-GaAs intersubband active cells embedded in a double plasmon enhanced optical waveguide. The laser materials are grown by solid source MBE on GaAs substrates.