Surface-emitting terahertz quantum cascade lasers with continuous-wave power in the tens of milliwatt range

Journal Article · Mon Mar 03 00:00:00 EST 2014 · Applied Physics Letters

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1063/1.4866661· OSTI ID:22283060

Xu, Gangyi ^[1]; Li, Lianhe; Giles Davies, A.; Linfield, Edmund H. ^[2]; Isac, Nathalie; Halioua, Yacine; Colombelli, Raffaele ^[1]

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1. Institut d'Electronique Fondamentale, Univ. Paris Sud, UMR8622 CNRS, 91405 Orsay (France)
2. School of Electronic and Electrical Engineering, University of Leeds, Leeds LS9 2JT (United Kingdom)

We demonstrate efficient surface-emitting terahertz frequency quantum cascade lasers with continuous wave output powers of 20–25 mW at 15 K and maximum operating temperatures of 80–85 K. The devices employ a resonant-phonon depopulation active region design with injector, and surface emission is realized using resonators based on graded photonic heterostructures (GPHs). GPHs can be regarded as energy wells for photons and have recently been implemented through grading the period of the photonic structure. In this paper, we show that it is possible to keep the period constant and grade instead the lateral metal coverage across the GPH. This strategy ensures spectrally single-mode operation across the whole laser dynamic range and represents an additional degree of freedom in the design of confining potentials for photons.

• OSTI ID: 22283060
• Journal Information: Applied Physics Letters, Vol. 104, Issue 9; Other Information: (c) 2014 AIP Publishing LLC; Country of input: International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA); ISSN 0003-6951
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

75 CONDENSED MATTER PHYSICS
SUPERCONDUCTIVITY AND SUPERFLUIDITY
77 NANOSCIENCE AND NANOTECHNOLOGY
CAVITY RESONATORS
DEGREES OF FREEDOM
HETEROJUNCTIONS
METALS
NANOSTRUCTURES
PHONONS
PHOTON EMISSION
PHOTONS
POTENTIALS
SOLID STATE LASERS
SURFACES