近日，瑞士苏黎世联邦理工学院Giacomo Scalari团队报道了半导体激光器中连续可调谐相干脉冲的产生。相关论文于2026年4月15日发表在《自然》杂志上。

在激光器中，光谱发射的控制取决于光学谐振腔的物理尺寸，因此只能局限于特定频率上的一系列离散腔模。若不改变光学腔结构，这意味着可获得的激光发射光谱会存在较大的空隙，且重复率固定，从而限制了该器件在那些需要光谱域或时间域具有相当大调谐能力的实验和应用中的实用性。

研究组通过展示一种单片式半导体激光器，克服了这一根本性限制。该激光器采用微波驱动信号，沿整个激光腔诱导出时空增益调制，从而产生群速度连续可调的腔内锁模脉冲，实现了从4 GHz到16 GHz连续可调的重复率。在输出端，频域上产生模式间距连续可调的频率梳，时域上则产生重复率连续可调的相干脉冲序列。该研究结果为完全可调谐的芯片级激光器和频率梳铺平了道路，这将有利于从基础研究到高分辨率光谱学、双梳光谱学等应用等多个不同领域。

附：英文原文

Title: Continuously tunable coherent pulse generation in a semiconductor laser

Author: Senica, Urban, Schreiber, Michael A., Raffa, Marco, Micheletti, Paolo, Beck, Mattias, Jirauschek, Christian, Faist, Jrme, Scalari, Giacomo

Issue&Volume: 2026-04-15

Abstract: In a laser, the control of its spectral emission depends on the physical dimensions of the optical resonator, restricting it to a set of discrete cavity modes at specific frequencies1,2,3,4. Without modifying the optical cavity, this results in substantial gaps in the obtainable laser emission spectrum, as well as a fixed repetition rate, limiting the device’s usability in various experiments and applications where a considerable degree of tunability is required in the spectral or temporal domain. Here we overcome this fundamental limit by demonstrating a monolithic semiconductor laser5,6,7 with a continuously tunable repetition rate from 4GHz up to 16GHz, by using a microwave driving signal that induces a spatiotemporal gain modulation along the entire laser cavity8,9, generating intracavity mode-locked pulses10,11,12,13 with a continuously tunable group velocity14. At the output, frequency combs15,16 with continuously tunable mode spacings are generated in the frequency domain, and coherent pulse trains with continuously tunable repetition rates are generated in the time domain17. Our results pave the way for fully tunable chip-scale lasers and frequency combs, which will be advantageous for use in a diverse variety of fields, from fundamental studies to applications such as high-resolution and dual-comb spectroscopy18,19.

DOI: 10.1038/s41586-026-10387-w

Source: https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-026-10387-w