#  Integrated Soliton Chips Illuminate the Mid-Infrared  

 





April 18, 2025

 

 

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*](https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-025-08853-y) and the press release from [Harvard SEAS](https://seas.harvard.edu/news/2025/04/compact-mid-infrared-pulse-generator).

 ![QCL](/sites/g/files/omnuum6306/files/2025-04/7548209C-B359-4E8F-8D5B-2E401FF89FC9.png)

 



 

 

 



 

 

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