Semiconductor Lasers

Active semiconductor devices form a core thrust for PSI, supporting many of our existing strengths in sensors and enabling many new growth areas in high power applications and optical communications. These devices are based on the quantum cascade laser (QCL) and the interband cascade laser (ICL). With band structure engineering these novel semiconductor lasers can be designed to operate from the midwave-infrared starting around 3 microns to the far-infrared up to around 300 microns. This laser technology and PSI’s work to improve many of their performance characteristics such as higher output power and enhanced tuning range have enabled new technologies and sensors such as:

o        Infrared laser absorption sensors - exploiting PSI’s rich history in TDLAS

o        Higher power compact infrared laser sources

o        High speed and high sensitivity far infrared heterodyne receivers

Quantum Cascade Laser