Alpes Lasers flagship product, the Continuous Wave, Distributed Feedback Grating Quantum Cascade Laser has been the most versatile mid-IR light source since 2005. These lasers are able to emit a single wavelength at a time.

They can be tuned within a range that can reach up to 4 cm-1 ; there exists a variety of modulation schemes which can be used for different purposes. These lasers are available as chips-on-submount or packaged in HHL or TO3 housing. 

Key Features

• Continuous Wave

• Single-Mode Spectrum

• Tunable source

• Low Dissipation

• High Beam Quality

• Narrow Linewidth 

Key Applications

• Gas Spectroscopy

• Photoacoustic Sensing

• Metrology 

HHL package suitable for higher dissipation CW-DFB 

TO3 package suitable for lower dissipation CW-DFB 

This sample power spectrum density of a 2216.6 cm - 1 CW-DFB-QCL (measured with a N2O reference gas cell) allows to extract the FWHM linewidth (from the blue area) of 2.01MHz over 1s integration time. The dashed black line is the beta-separation line which corresponds to the upper integration limit for the linewidth determination. 

Quantum Cascade Lasers are mid-Infrared light sources which can cover a broad range of wavelengths. In a Distributed Feedback Grating (DFB) device, a grating is etched into the active region of the laser and forces the emission to occur at a very specific wavelength which is determined by the grating periodicity. 

For this reason, DFB lasers are also known as Single Mode Lasers. The exact wavelength can be adjusted over a small Tuning Range by changing the operating current and/or the temperature of operation; the exact wavelengths available from a given laser will be specified in an individual datasheet.