Integrated Soliton Chips Illuminate the Mid-Infrared

Integrated light-pulse generators are instrumental in driving data communication systems and spectroscopic sensors. Despite their ubiquity across diverse applications, such chips had not existed for the mid-infrared spectrum—until now. Dmitry Kazakov, Theodore P. Letsou, and colleagues recently published in Nature a new type of mid-infrared laser chip capable of generating picosecond-scale, background-free pulses integrated onto a single chip. Leveraging techniques from the Kerr microcomb community, the team generated optical solitons at a central wavelength of 8 µm using a hybrid electrically-optically-driven ring laser based on the quantum cascade laser. These chips could someday become central to ultra-broadband gas sensors and next-generation diagnostic tools for medical imaging.

Check out the publication in Nature and the press release from Harvard SEAS.