Investigating temperature degradation in THz quantum cascade lasers by examination of temperature dependence of output power
- Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science and Research Laboratory of Electronics, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, Massachusetts 02139 (United States)
In this paper, we demonstrate a method to investigate the temperature degradation of THz quantum cascade lasers (QCLs) based on analyzing the dependence of lasing output power on temperature. The output power is suggested to decrease exponentially with some characteristic activation energy indicative of the degradation mechanism. As a proof of concept, Arrhenius plots of power versus temperature are used to extract the activation energy in vertical transition THz QCLs. The extracted energies are consistent with thermally activated longitudinal optical-phonon scattering being the dominant degradation mechanism, as is generally accepted. The extracted activation energy values are shown to be in good agreement with the values predicted from laser spectra.
- OSTI ID:
- 22398803
- Journal Information:
- Applied Physics Letters, Vol. 106, Issue 13; Other Information: (c) 2015 AIP Publishing LLC; Country of input: International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA); ISSN 0003-6951
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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