Metasurface quantum-cascade laser with electrically switchable polarization

Journal Article · Thu Apr 20 00:00:00 EDT 2017 · Optica

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1364/OPTICA.4.000468· OSTI ID:1360798

Xu, Luyao ^[1]; Chen, Daguan ^[2]; Curwen, Christopher A. ^[1]; Memarian, Mohammad ^[2]; Reno, John L. ^[3]; Itoh, Tatsuo ^[2]; Williams, Benjamin S. ^[1]

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1. Univ. of California, Los Angeles, CA (United States). Dept. of Electrical Engineering; Univ. of California, Los Angeles, CA (United States). California NanoSystems Inst.
2. Univ. of California, Los Angeles, CA (United States). Dept. of Electrical Engineering
3. Sandia National Lab. (SNL-NM), Albuquerque, NM (United States). Center of Integrated Nanotechnologies

Dynamic control of a laser’s output polarization state is desirable for applications in polarization sensitive imaging, spectroscopy, and ellipsometry. Using external elements to control the polarization state is a common approach. Less common and more challenging is directly switching the polarization state of a laser, which, however, has the potential to provide high switching speeds, compactness, and power efficiency. Here, we demonstrate a new approach to achieve direct and electrically controlled polarization switching of a semiconductor laser. This is enabled by integrating a polarization-sensitive metasurface with a semiconductor gain medium to selectively amplify a cavity mode with the designed polarization state, therefore leading to an output in the designed polarization. Here, the demonstration is for a terahertz quantum-cascade laser, which exhibits electrically controlled switching between two linear polarizations separated by 80°, while maintaining an excellent beam with a narrow divergence of ~3°×3° and a single-mode operation fixed at ~3.4 THz, combined with a peak power as high as 93 mW at a temperature of 77 K. The polarization-sensitive metasurface is composed of two interleaved arrays of surface-emitting antennas, all of which are loaded with quantum-cascade gain materials. Each array is designed to resonantly interact with one specific polarization; when electrical bias is selectively applied to the gain material in one array, selective amplification of one polarization occurs. The amplifying metasurface is used along with an output coupler reflector to build a vertical-external-cavity surface-emitting laser whose output polarization state can be switched solely electrically. In conclusion, this work demonstrates the potential of exploiting amplifying polarization-sensitive metasurfaces to create lasers with desirable polarization states—a concept which is applicable beyond the terahertz and can potentially be applied to shorter wavelengths.

• Research Organization: Sandia National Lab. (SNL-NM), Albuquerque, NM (United States)
• Sponsoring Organization: USDOE Office of Science (SC), Advanced Scientific Computing Research (ASCR); USDOE National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA); National Science Foundation (NSF); National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA)
• Grant/Contract Number: AC04-94AL85000
• OSTI ID: 1360798
• Report Number(s): SAND-2016-12371J; 649740
• Journal Information: Optica, Vol. 4, Issue 4; ISSN 2334-2536
• Publisher: Optical Society of America
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

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