Direct measurement of an ultrafast sub-bandwidth-limited signal in mid-infrared quantum cascade lasers

Frequency comb lasers with fast gain recovery times naturally favor the emission of frequency mod-ulated periodic signals, which are useful for multiple applications in spectroscopy and communications. Models and phase measurements predict an ultrashort strong intensity spike at the instantaneous frequency discontinuity of the cavity cycle. Here we experimentally study the ultrashort spike of fast-gain frequency modulated combs through direct upconversion sampling, and measure a width below that of a transform-limited pulse. Specifi-cally, we demonstrate a mid-infrared quantum cascade laser which inherently lases in a frequency modulated comb and produces a spike with full-width at half-maximum below 600 fs, which is below the Fourier-limit derived from the corresponding spectrum. We believe these ultrashort spikes can be highly beneficial for sub-bandwidth time domain measurements. Using mean-field theory based simulations, we confirm the occurrence of such features as well as further optimize our system for going even further below the Fourier-limit.