Abstract :
High-power, high-efficiency quantum cascade lasers (QCLs) that operate at room temperature and above have been developed by Pranalytica Inc. High-power QCLs are already or have the potential to be used in a wide range of mainly military-related mid-wave infrared (MWIR) and long-wave infrared (LWIR) applications such as protecting aircraft from shoulder-fired missiles, night vision systems and free-space optical communications. Pranalytica have recently demonstrated over 3600 hours of degradation-free operation of a fully packaged QCL emitting over 2 W of continuous-wave output power, along with thousands of hours of many other high-performance 1 W+ class QCLs, showing that they are reliable devices suitable for real-world applications.