Broadband continuous single-mode tuning of a short-cavity quantum-cascade VECSEL

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

doi:10.1038/s41566-019-0518-z

Broadband continuous single-mode tuning of a short-cavity quantum-cascade VECSEL

Journal Article · Mon Sep 23 00:00:00 EDT 2019 · Nature Photonics

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1038/s41566-019-0518-z· OSTI ID:1575261

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)

Changing the length of a laser cavity is a simple method for continuously tuning the wavelength of a laser but is rarely used for broad fractional tuning, with a notable exception of the vertical-cavity surface-emitting laser (VCSEL). This is because, to avoid mode hopping, the cavity must be kept optically short to ensure a large free spectral range compared to the gain bandwidth of the amplifying material. Terahertz quantum-cascade lasers are ideal candidates for such a short cavity scheme as they demonstrate exceptional gain bandwidths (up to octave spanning) and can be integrated with broadband amplifying metasurfaces. Our report presents such a quantum-cascade metasurface-based vertical-external-cavity surface-emitting laser (VECSEL) that exhibits over 20% continuous fractional tuning of a single laser mode. Such tuning is possible because the metasurface has subwavelength thickness, which allows lasing on low-order Fabry–Pérot cavity modes. Good beam quality and high output power are simultaneously obtained.

View Accepted Manuscript (DOE)

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

Sponsoring Organization:: National Science Foundation (NSF); USDOE National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA); USDOE Office of Science (SC), Basic Energy Sciences (BES) (SC-22)

Grant/Contract Number:: AC04-94AL85000; NA0003525

OSTI ID:: 1575261

Report Number(s):: SAND--2019-4109J; 674633

Journal Information:: Nature Photonics, Journal Name: Nature Photonics Journal Issue: 12 Vol. 13; ISSN 1749-4885

Publisher:: Nature Publishing GroupCopyright Statement

Country of Publication:: United States

Language:: English

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