Case Study CS-LDTC14 Rev. A

Page 5

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KEYWORDS

Ring resonator, microresonator, mid-infrared photonics,

integrated optics, PICs, quantum cascade laser, tunable

filter, frequency converter, frequency comb generator,

spectroscopy, temperature controller, QCL1500 LAB,

QCL2000 LAB, TC5 LAB

PRODUCTS USED

QCL1500 LAB, QCL2000 LAB, TC5 LAB

REVISION HISTORY

Document Number: CS-LDTC14

REVISION

DATE

NOTES

A

March 2024

Initial Release

REFERENCES

1. Kazakov, D., Letsou, T.P., Beiser, M. et al, Active mid-

infrared ring resonators. Nat Commun. 2024, 607,

15.

https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-023-44628-7

USEFUL LINKS

•

QCL1500 LAB Product Page

•

QCL2000 LAB Product Page

•

TC LAB Series Product Page

PERMISSIONS

Figures 1 - 5 in this case study were obtained from

Reference 1. The article (Ref. 1) is distributed under terms

of Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License

(https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/),

which

permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in

any medium, provided that you give appropriate credit to

the original authors and the source, provide a link to the

Creative Commons license, and indicate if changes were

made.

The captions for Figures 1 - 5 were modified. Figure 1 was

cropped from Figure 2. No changes were made to the other

figures. They are presented in their original form.

The developed mid-IR active ring resonator can act as a

filter, wavelength converter, or a frequency comb generator.

Due to the control coupling, resonance detuning, and the

quality factors, the end function of this multifaceted device

can be user-defined post-fabrication.1 These researchers1

realize, "Active ring QCL resonators thus have the potential

of serving as reconfigurable building blocks of larger-scale

agile hybrid mid-IR PICs." This design can also extend to

the entire mid-IR range for many ICL and QCL applications.

WAVELENGTH'S ROLE

All laser devices, including a Fabry-Perot QCL, were driven

with Wavelength Electronics' low-noise current drivers

QCL1500 LAB or QCL2000 LAB and their temperature

was stabilized at 16ºC using Wavelength Electronics' low

thermal drift temperature controller TC5 LAB. It was critical

to have precise control of the drive current as the probe

wavelength was tuned by ramping the injection current. The

RT QCL operation state is highly dependent on the injection

current especially when dealing with frequency comb

generation.

Wavelength Electronics' QCL1500 LAB and QCL2000 LAB

QCL drivers can provide up to 1.5 A and 2.0 A of current to

the QCLs, respectively, with noise current as low as 0.4 µA

(RMS). The average noise density of 4 nA/√Hz is necessary

for the functionality of room temperature frequency combs,

frequency converters, and tunability of the RT QCL design.

Researchers also utilized the precision temperature control

of the TC5 LAB instrument with output current of up to 5 A

and compliance voltage of 15 V. This controller provides

temperature stability of better than 0.0009ºC and provides

the necessary safety for the user and the laser with

integrated and adjustable limit features.

All three instruments make use of an intuitive touchscreen

user interface, automatic settings and data collection, and

complete command sets for remote control. The high-

performance and precision of Wavelength Electronics

provided the necessary stability of the laser sources in the

active mid-IR ring resonators.