High-Power Ultrafast and CW Quantum Dot Edge-Emitting Lasers

The development of compact, tunable, high-power ultrafast and CW laser sources in the near-IR spectral region is motivated by demand from the biomedical community, where the practical laser sources are required for the use in biomedical and imaging applications.

In this respect, semiconductor lasers with their low-cost, high efficiency and a small size are very promising for the realization of such compact and versatile broadly-tunable lasers. In particular, novel quantum-dot lasers, offering the coverage of broad wavelength ranges, are especially useful in this regard. Using InAs/GaAs quantum-dot diode lasers, we have already demonstrated very impressive results, including wavelength tunability ranges in excess of 200 nm in the near-IR (1 – 1.3 µm) spectral region, high output peak power up to 42 W, and ultrashort pulse generation with a pulse duration less than 400fs.

This work was supported by €14.7M FP7-IP FAST-DOT (http://www.fast-dot.eu) project (2008 - 2012), People Marie Curie Action project NiNTENDU-PULSE (2011 - 2013) and KTP projects.

Currently, our group’s research is also focussed on the development of novel, compact femtosecond lasers for their application in Multiphoton Imaging (two- photon, second harmonic and third harmonic imaging) in fixed and live tissue samples.