Dispersion dynamics of quantum cascade lasers

Burghoff, David; Yang, Yang; Reno, John L.; Hu, Qing

doi:10.1364/OPTICA.3.001362

Title: Dispersion dynamics of quantum cascade lasers

Journal Article · Mon Dec 19 23:00:00 EST 2016 · Optica

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1364/OPTICA.3.001362 · OSTI ID:1339651

Burghoff, David ^[1]; Yang, Yang ^[1]; Reno, John L. ^[2]; Hu, Qing ^[1]

Massachusetts Inst. of Technology (MIT), Cambridge, MA (United States)
Sandia National Lab. (SNL-NM), Albuquerque, NM (United States)

A key parameter underlying the efficacy of any nonlinear optical process is group velocity dispersion. In quantum cascade lasers (QCLs), there have been several recent demonstrations of devices exploiting nonlinearities in both the mid-infrared and the terahertz. Though the gain of QCLs has been well studied, the dispersion has been much less investigated, and several questions remain about its dynamics and precise origin. In this work, we use time-domain spectroscopy to investigate the dispersion of broadband terahertz QCLs, and demonstrate that contributions from both the material and the intersubband transitions are relevant. We show that in contrast to the laser gain—which is clamped to a fixed value above lasing threshold—the dispersion changes with bias even above threshold, which is a consequence of shifting intersubband populations. In conclusion, we also examine the role of higher-order dispersion in QCLs and discuss the ramifications of our result for devices utilizing nonlinear effects, such as frequency combs.

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

Sponsoring Organization:: USDOE Office of Science (SC), Basic Energy Sciences (BES) (SC-22)

Grant/Contract Number:: AC04-94AL85000

OSTI ID:: 1339651

Report Number(s):: SAND--2016-8988J; 647328

Journal Information:: Optica, Journal Name: Optica Journal Issue: 12 Vol. 3; ISSN 2334-2536

Publisher:: Optical Society of AmericaCopyright Statement

Country of Publication:: United States

Language:: English

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Cited By (5)

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Generalized method for the computational phase correction of arbitrary dual comb signals Burghoff, David; Han, Ningren; Shin, Jae Ho Optics Letters, Vol. 44, Issue 12 https://doi.org/10.1364/ol.44.002966	journal	January 2019

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71 CLASSICAL AND QUANTUM MECHANICS
GENERAL PHYSICS
quantum cascade
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Dispersion dynamics of quantum cascade lasers [Supplemental Data] Burghoff, David; Yang, Yang; Reno, John L. https://doi.org/10.6084/m9.figshare.c.3756206 The current record is supplemented by this preprint	preprint	December 2016
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