High-speed operation of gain-switched mid-infrared quantum cascade lasers

We develop a gain-switched quantum cascade (QC) laser to generate pulses with less than 200 ps duration at 8 /spl mu/m gain switching is a simple technique for the generation of picosecond light pulses from injection lasers, which relies on the rapid depletion of the gain-medium population inversion following a short-lived electrical excitation.