High performance terahertz metasurface quantum-cascade VECSEL with an intra-cryostat cavity

Xu, Luyao; Curwen, Christopher A.; Reno, John L.; Williams, Benjamin S.

doi:10.1063/1.4993600

Title: High performance terahertz metasurface quantum-cascade VECSEL with an intra-cryostat cavity

Journal Article · Mon Sep 04 00:00:00 EDT 2017 · Applied Physics Letters

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1063/1.4993600· OSTI ID:1399509

^[1]; Curwen, Christopher A. ^[1]; Reno, John L. ^[2];

^[1]

Univ. of California, Los Angeles, CA (United States)
Sandia National Lab. (SNL-NM), Albuquerque, NM (United States)

A terahertz quantum-cascade (QC) vertical-external-cavity surface-emitting-laser (VECSEL) is demonstrated with over 5 mW power in continuous-wave and single-mode operation above 77 K, in combination with a near-Gaussian beam pattern with full-width half-max divergence as narrow as ~5° × 5°, with no evidence of thermal lensing. This is realized by creating an intra-cryostat VECSEL cavity to reduce the cavity loss and designing an active focusing metasurface reflector with low power dissipation for efficient heat removal. Compared with a conventional quantumcascade laser based on a metal-metal waveguide, the intra-cryostat QC-VECSEL exhibits significant improvements in both output power level and beam pattern. Also, the intra-cryostat configuration newly allows evaluation of QC-VECSEL operation vs. temperature, showing a maximum pulsed mode operating temperature of 129 K. While the threshold current density in the QC-VECSEL is worse in comparison to a conventional edge-emitting metal-metal waveguide QClaser, the beam quality, slope efficiency, maximum power, and thermal resistance are all significantly improved.

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Research Organization:: Sandia National Lab. (SNL-NM), Albuquerque, NM (United States)

Sponsoring Organization:: USDOE Office of Science (SC), Basic Energy Sciences (BES)

Grant/Contract Number:: AC04-94AL85000

OSTI ID:: 1399509

Report Number(s):: SAND-2017-6878J; 654903

Journal Information:: Applied Physics Letters, Vol. 111, Issue 10; ISSN 0003-6951

Publisher:: American Institute of Physics (AIP)Copyright Statement

Country of Publication:: United States

Language:: English

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Cited by: 13 works

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Broadband continuous single-mode tuning of a short-cavity quantum-cascade VECSEL Curwen, Christopher A.; Reno, John L.; Williams, Benjamin S. Nature Photonics, Vol. 13, Issue 12 https://doi.org/10.1038/s41566-019-0518-z	journal	September 2019
Terahertz quantum cascade VECSEL with watt-level output power Curwen, Christopher A.; Reno, John L.; Williams, Benjamin S. Applied Physics Letters, Vol. 113, Issue 1 https://doi.org/10.1063/1.5033910	journal	July 2018
THz Emission by Frequency Down-conversion in Topological Insulator Quantum Dots Huang, Yongwei; Lou, Wenkai; Cheng, Fang Physical Review Applied, Vol. 12, Issue 3 https://doi.org/10.1103/physrevapplied.12.034003	journal	September 2019

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