Abstract-Optical feedback effects on terahertz quantum cascade lasers: modelling and applications

Aleksandar D. Rakić, Yah Leng Lim, Thomas Taimre, Gary Agnew, Xiaoqiong Qi, Karl Bertling, She Han, Stephen J. Wilson

The Univ. of Queensland (Australia)

Andrew Grier, Zoran Ikonić, Alexander Valavanis, Aleksandar Demić, James Keeley, Lianhe H. Li, Edmund H. Linfield, A. Giles Davies, Dragan Indjin

Univ. of Leeds (United Kingdom)

Paul Harrison

Sheffield Hallam Univ. (United Kingdom)

Blake Ferguson, Graeme Walker

QIMR Berghofer Medical Research Institute (Australia)

Tarl W. Prow, H. Peter Soyer

The Univ. of Queensland School of Medicine (Australia)

Proc. SPIE 10030, Infrared, Millimeter-Wave, and Terahertz Technologies IV, 1003016 (December 8, 2016); doi:10.1117/12.2250621

http://proceedings.spiedigitallibrary.org/proceeding.aspx?articleid=2593076






Terahertz (THz) quantum cascade lasers (QCLs) are compact sources of radiation in the 1–5 THz range with significant potential for applications in sensing and imaging. Laser feedback interferometry (LFI) with THz QCLs is a technique utilizing the sensitivity of the QCL to the radiation reflected back into the laser cavity from an external target. We will discuss modelling techniques and explore the applications of LFI in biological tissue imaging and will show that the confocal nature of the QCL in LFI systems, with their innate capacity for depth sectioning, makes them suitable for skin diagnostics with the well-known advantages of more conventional confocal microscopes. A demonstration of discrimination of neoplasia from healthy tissue using a THz, LFI-based system in the context of melanoma is presented using a transgenic mouse model.
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