Quasi-crystal structures are conventionally built following deterministic generation rules although they do not present a full spatial periodicity. If used as laser resonators, they open up intriguing design possibilities that are simply not possible in conventional periodic photonic crystals: the distinction between symmetric (vertically radiative but low quality factor Q) and anti-symmetric (non-radiative, high Q) modes is indeed here fully overcome, offering a concrete perspective of highly efficient vertical emitting resonators. We here exploit electrically pumped terahertz quantum cascade heterostructures to devise two-dimensional seven-fold quasi-crystal resonators, exploiting rotational order or irregularly distributed defects. By lithographically tuning the lattice quasi-periodicity and/or the hole radius of the imprinted patterns, efficient multimode surface emission with a rich sequence of spectral lines distributed over a 2.9–3.4 THz bandwidth was reached. We demonstrated multicolor emission with 67 mW of peak optical power, slope efficiencies up to ≈70 mW/A, 0.14% wall plug efficiencies and beam profile results of the rich quasi-crystal Fourier spectrum that, in the case of larger rotational order, can reach very low divergence. Full article

We report on a quartz-enhanced photoacoustic (QEPAS) sensor for methanol (CH₃OH) detection employing a novel quartz tuning fork (QTF), specifically designed to enhance the QEPAS sensing performance in the terahertz (THz) spectral range. A discussion of the QTF properties in terms of resonance frequency, quality factor and acousto-electric transduction efficiency as a function of prong sizes and spacing between the QTF prongs is presented. The QTF was employed in a QEPAS sensor system using a 3.93 THz quantum cascade laser as the excitation source in resonance with a CH₃OH rotational absorption line located at 131.054 cm⁻¹. A minimum detection limit of 160 ppb in 30 s integration time, corresponding to a normalized noise equivalent absorption NNEA = 3.75 × 10⁻¹¹ cm⁻¹W/Hz^½, was achieved, representing a nearly one-order-of-magnitude improvement with respect to previous reports. Full article

We report on single mode optical transmission of hollow core glass waveguides (HWG) coupled with an external cavity mid-IR quantum cascade lasers (QCLs). The QCL mode results perfectly matched to the hybrid HE₁₁ waveguide mode and the higher losses TE-like modes have efficiently suppressed by the deposited inner dielectric coating. Optical losses down to 0.44 dB/m and output beam divergence of ~5 mrad were measured. Using a HGW fiber with internal core size of 300 µm we obtained single mode laser transmission at 10.54 µm and successful employed it in a quartz enhanced photoacoustic gas sensor setup. Full article