Cost-effective tunable laser gas-sensor module for high-volume applications, using DFB laser diodes in the NIR, and ICL in the MIR

This talk gives an insight into the development and the device performance of various tunable Laser Diodes (LD) in the near infrared (NIR) region between 760 nm and 3000 nm, and Interband Cascade Laser (ICL) based sources in the mid infrared (MIR) wavelength region between 3000 nm and 6000 nm for application in high accuracy gas sensing. Distributed Feedback (DFB) type ICL and LD devices based on a lateral metal grating structure were fabricated using an overgrowth free processing route. These devices have been realized in the entire spectral range from 760 nm to 5200 nm up to now. Total tuning ranges of up to 20 nm can be covered by these DFB devices providing typically a few mW of optical output power with low power consumption based on a low operating current and voltage. All fabricated NIR and MIR sources are targeting high performance sensor applications in fields like industrial process control or environmental monitoring. Various application examples utilizing this Tunable Laser Absorption Spectroscopy (TLAS) will be highlighted in the talk.