Most vapor molecules have a unique absorption spectrum in the mid-IR region, so this range is of particular interest for trace gas analysis and chemical sensing. And quantum cascade (QC) lasers are ideal candidate light sources for mid-IR spectroscopy: Their emission wavelength reaches from the midto the far-IR with good power efficiency. QC lasers are based on the intersubband transitions betw...

BACKGROUND The use of lasers has assumed an increasingly important role in the treatment of a variety of cutaneous lesions over the past few decades. Because of their effectiveness, physicians from a variety of specialties have incorporated lasers into their practices. Unfortunately, widespread availability of lasers and the public's fascination with their potential uses have created extraordin...

Tunable lasers are currently used in a wide range of applications such as wavelengthdivision-multiplexing networks, optical sensors, spectroscopy, wavelength protection, fiberoptic gyroscope, and testing of optical components and instruments. In particular, tunable fiber lasers, which employ optical fiber cavity and wave-guided gain medium, have recently attracted great interest owing to severa...

Light amplification by stimulated emission of radiation (laser) has been used widely in a range of biomedical and dental applications in recent years. In the field of restorative dentistry, various kinds of lasers have been developed for diagnostic (e.g. caries detection) and operative applications (e.g. tooth ablation, cavity preparation, restorations, bleaching). The main benefits for laser a...

Laser drilling has emerged in the last five years as the most widely accepted method of creating microvias in high-density electronic interconnect and chip packaging devices. Most commercially available laser drilling tools are currently based on one of two laser types: far-IR CO2 lasers and UV solid state lasers at 355 nm. While CO2 lasers are recognized for their high average power and drilli...

John S. Popovics Summary Lasers are devices that create a high intensity, directed light beam. The light beam can travel in air or through fiber optic cables. Lasers can be used to generate waves and detect stretching or motion in a solid material without direct contact with the material. Thus lasers are useful in many important engineering applications that require remote non-destructive evalu...

Carbon nanotubes (CNTs) possess both remarkable optical properties and high potential for integration in various photonic devices. We overview, here, recent progress in CNT applications in fibre optics putting particular emphasis on fibre lasers. We discuss fabrication and characterisation of different CNTs, development of CNTbased saturable absorbers (CNT-SA), their integration and operation i...

In this paper we propose the use of multi-longitudinal mode lasers, such as Fabry-Pérot (FP) lasers, for simultaneous distributed strain and temperature sensing based on hybrid Brillouin and Raman scattering. Fabry-Pérot lasers allow for high-power Raman intensity measurement and the simultaneous detection of the Brillouin frequency shift parameter for all FP longitudinal modes, by using a self...

Monolithic passively mode-locked quantum dot lasers with excited-state transition were investigated in a broad operating range without ground-state lasing. Optical and electrical characteristics of these mode locked lasers were studied in detail at different levels of injection current and absorber bias. Very different behaviors in the evolution of the hysteresis, the optical spectra and the ev...