This letter reports on a quantum cascade laser that exhibits simultaneous dual-wavelength emission from two consecutive optical transitions in each active region. These “cascaded” transitions—a second-excited state to first-excited state and a first-excited state to ground state—yield light at 9.5 and 8.2μm, respectively, in good agreement with simulations. The two lasing wavelengths have similar thresholds at the leading edge of a current pulse.

1.
C.
Gmachl
,
F.
Capasso
,
D. L.
Sivco
, and
A. Y.
Cho
,
Rep. Prog. Phys.
64
,
1533
(
2001
).
2.
J.
Faist
,
F.
Capasso
,
D. L.
Sivco
,
C.
Sirtori
,
A. L.
Hutchinson
, and
A. Y.
Cho
,
Science
264
,
553
(
1994
).
3.
A.
Tredicucci
,
C.
Gmachl
,
F.
Capasso
,
D. L.
Sivco
,
A. L.
Hutchinson
, and
A. Y.
Cho
,
Nature (London)
396
,
350
(
1998
).
4.
M.
Troccoli
,
A.
Belyanin
,
F.
Capasso
,
E.
Cubukcu
,
D. L.
Sivco
, and
A. Y.
Cho
,
Nature (London)
433
,
845
(
2005
);
O.
Malis
,
A.
Belyanin
,
D. L.
Sivco
,
J.
Chen
,
A. M.
Sergent
,
C.
Gmachl
, and
A. Y.
Cho
,
Electron. Lett.
40
,
1586
(
2004
).
5.
C.
Sirtori
,
A.
Tredicucci
,
F.
Capasso
,
J.
Faist
,
D. L.
Sivco
,
A. L.
Hutchinson
, and
A. Y.
Cho
,
Opt. Lett.
23
,
463
(
1998
).
6.
7.
M.
Aspelmeyer
,
H. R.
Bohm
,
T.
Gyatso
,
T.
Jennewein
,
R.
Kaltenbaek
,
M.
Lindenthal
,
G.
Molina-Terriza
,
A.
Poppe
,
K.
Resch
,
M.
Taraba
,
R.
Ursin
,
P.
Walther
, and
A.
Zeilinger
,
Science
301
,
621
(
2003
);
[PubMed]
A.
Muthukrishnan
,
M. O.
Scully
, and
M. S.
Zubairy
,
J. Opt. B: Quantum Semiclassical Opt.
6
,
S575
(
2004
).
8.
G.
Scalari
,
C.
Walther
,
J.
Faist
,
H.
Beere
, and
D.
Ritchie
,
Appl. Phys. Lett.
88
,
141102
(
2006
).
9.
A. A.
Belyanin
,
F.
Capasso
,
V. V.
Kocharovsky
,
Vl. V.
Kocharovsky
, and
M. O.
Scully
,
Phys. Rev. A
63
,
053803
(
2001
).
10.
H. J. G. A. P. V.
Goedertier
,
Appl. Phys. Lett.
4
,
20
(
1964
);
C.
Santori
,
D.
Fattal
,
J.
Vuckovic
,
G. S.
Solomon
, and
Y.
Yamamoto
,
Nature (London)
419
,
594
(
2002
).
11.
R.
Ferreira
and
G.
Bastard
,
Phys. Rev. B
40
,
1074
(
1989
).
12.
J.
Faist
,
F.
Capasso
,
C.
Sirtori
,
D. L.
Sivco
,
A. L.
Hutchinson
,
M. S.
Hybertsen
, and
A. Y.
Cho
,
Phys. Rev. Lett.
76
,
411
(
1996
).
You do not currently have access to this content.