Heterodyne receiver at 2.5 THz with quantum cascade laser and hot electron bolometric mixer

Quantum cascade lasers (QCLs) operating at 2.5 THz have been used for gas phase spectroscopy and as local oscillator in a heterodyne receiver. One QCL has a Fabry-Perot resonator while the other has a distributed feedback resonator. The linewidth and frequency tunability of both QCLs have been investigated by either mixing two modes of the QCL or by mixing the emission from the QCL with the emission from a 2.5 THz gas laser. The frequency tunability as well as the linewidth is sufficient for Doppler limited spectroscopy of methanol gas. The QCLs have been used successfully as local oscillators in a heterodyne receiver. Noise temperature measurements with a hot electron bolometer and a QCL yielded the same result as with a gas laser as local oscillator.