Quantum cascade lasers represent nowadays a mature technology to obtain laser sources in the medium and far infrared region (up to THz). Several advantages with respect to other coherent sources make this kind of lasers particularly attractive: the emission frequency can be selected by properly designing the growth structure, the emission wavelength is tunable with a very good precision and a high optical power in the IR range can be emitted in a spot of small size. These properties make them suitable for several applications, including gas spectroscopy in the IR range. In this work we introduce different types of quantum cascade lasers and we provide a description of their performances and properties, showing that they are suitable candidates for biosensing applications. (17 References).      «

Quantum cascade lasers represent nowadays a mature technology to obtain laser sources in the medium and far infrared region (up to THz). Several advantages with respect to other coherent sources make this kind of lasers particularly attractive: the emission frequency can be selected by properly designing the growth structure, the emission wavelength is tunable with a very good precision and a high optical power in the IR range can be emitted in a spot of small size. These properties make them su...     »