Carrier leakage into the continuum in diagonal GaAs/Al{sub 0.15}GaAs terahertz quantum cascade lasers
- Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science and Research Laboratory of Electronics, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, Massachusetts 02139 (United States)
The maximum operating temperature reported so far for THz-QCLs is ∼200 K. With the well-known degradation mechanism of thermally activated LO-phonon scattering, one straightforward strategy to improve their temperature performances is the use of diagonal structures in which the upper-to-lower state scattering time is lengthened. However, the effectiveness of this method for achieving room temperature operation remains to be demonstrated. Here, we studied the temperature degradation of highly diagonal GaAs/Al{sub 0.15}GaAs THz-QCLs. By analyzing their output power dependence on temperature, we identified the physical mechanism that limits their performance to be thermally activated leakage into the continuum, as evidenced by the large activation energy of ∼80 meV extracted from the Arrhenius plot. This observation is further supported by a careful analysis of current-voltage characteristics, especially in regions of high biases. In order to significantly improve the temperature performances of diagonal THz-QCLs, this leakage should be eliminated.
- OSTI ID:
- 22486219
- Journal Information:
- Applied Physics Letters, Journal Name: Applied Physics Letters Journal Issue: 24 Vol. 107; ISSN APPLAB; ISSN 0003-6951
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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