High-Power Mid-Infrared Quantum Cascade Laser Array with Continuous-Wave Output Power Exceeding 100W

Development of a 100W QCL platform based on 2-D QCL bar array is proposed. QCL bar geometry will be optimized for the highest wall plug efficiency under full operating conditions. Each element in the array will deliver optical power of 3W to 4W in high quality beam with beam quality parameter M2 = 1.5. The QCL platform will be designed so that each element in the array could be individually controlled. The platform output optical power will be scalable up to 1kW. Waste heat generated by the QCL bars will be removed by a two phase cooling system. Compared with traditional single-phase microchannel coolers, the two-phase cooling takes advantage of the latent heat of vaporization of the refrigerant, which enables the evaporator to handle higher fluxes with significantly lower mass flowrates, i.e., less pumping power resulting in a more compact system. The cooling system will be insensitive to orientation and will be designed to operate under several g"s of shock/acceleration. Unprecedented combination of the high optical power and small size of the entire platform will pave the way to a new generation DIRCM systems to counter emerging new generation of MANPADS and other DoD applications.