Low-Frequency Oscillations in Quantum Cascade Lasers With Tilted Optical Feedback

Quantum cascade lasers are highly stable against optical feedback, where the reflection mirror is well aligned with the optical path. Therefore, it is challenging to produce pulse oscillations in quantum cascade lasers through normal optical feedback. In this work, we show that tilted optical feedback with a misaligned reflection mirror triggers quantum cascade lasers to generate low-frequency oscillations, including irregular pulse oscillations and square wave oscillations. The oscillation period is in the microsecond range, and generally decreases with increasing tilt angle. In addition, the duty cycle of the square waves is tunable through varying the tilt angle. It is also found that a weak feedback strength or a low pump current yields rare occurrence of the pulse oscillations.

Automated summary

The study demonstrates that tilted optical feedback with a misaligned reflection mirror can trigger quantum cascade lasers to generate low-frequency oscillations, including irregular pulse oscillations and square wave oscillations. The oscillation period is in the microsecond range, generally decreasing with increasing tilt angle, and the duty cycle of the square waves is tunable through varying the tilt angle. It is also noted that weak feedback strength or low pump current results in rare occurrence of pulse oscillations.