Search Menu
DOE PAGES title logo U.S. Department of Energy
Office of Scientific and Technical Information
Search Scholarly Publications

Title: High power edge-cum-surface emitting terahertz laser arrays phased locked by vacuum guided plasmon waves

Abstract

Terahertz semiconductor quantum-cascade lasers (QCLs) are widely implemented with metallic cavities that support low-loss plasmonic optical modes at long wavelengths. However, resonant optical modes in such cavities suffer from poor radiative characteristics due to their subwavelength transverse dimensions. Consequently, single-mode terahertz QCLs with metallic cavities and large (>100 mW) output power have only been realized in the surface-emitting configuration that affords a large radiating surface. Here, we demonstrate a method to enhance radiative outcoupling from such plasmonic lasers for high-power emission in the edge-emitting (end-fire or longitudinal) direction. Single-sided plasmon waves propagating in vacuum are resonantly excited in surrounding medium of metallic cavities with the QCL semiconductor medium. The vacuum guided plasmon waves with a large wavefront phase-lock multiple metallic cavities longitudinally, which leads to intense radiation in multiple directions, including that in the longitudinal direction in a narrow single-lobed beam. The multicavity array radiates predominantly in a single spectral mode. A peak-power output of 260 mW and a slope efficiency of 303 mW/A are measured for the end-fire beam from a 3.3 THz QCL operating at 54 K in a Stirling cooler. Finally, single-mode operation and lithographic tuning across a bandwidth of ~150 GHz are demonstrated.

Authors:
ORCiD logo [1];  [1];  [2]; ORCiD logo [1]
+ Show Author Affiliations
  1. Lehigh Univ., Bethlehem, PA (United States)
  2. Sandia National Lab. (SNL-NM), Albuquerque, NM (United States)
Publication Date:
Research Org.:
Sandia National Lab. (SNL-NM), Albuquerque, NM (United States)
Sponsoring Org.:
USDOE Office of Science (SC), Basic Energy Sciences (BES); National Science Foundation (NSF)
OSTI Identifier:
1618091
Report Number(s):
SAND-2020-0623J
Journal ID: ISSN 0003-6951; 682967; TRN: US2200930
Grant/Contract Number:  
AC04-94AL85000; ECCS 1609168; ECCS 1351142; NA0003525
Resource Type:
Accepted Manuscript
Journal Name:
Applied Physics Letters
Additional Journal Information:
Journal Volume: 116; Journal Issue: 13; Journal ID: ISSN 0003-6951
Publisher:
American Institute of Physics (AIP)
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English
Subject:
42 ENGINEERING

Citation Formats

Jin, Yuan, Zhu, Qiyao, Reno, John L., and Kumar, Sushil. High power edge-cum-surface emitting terahertz laser arrays phased locked by vacuum guided plasmon waves. United States: N. p., 2020. Web. doi:10.1063/1.5142860.
Copy to clipboard
Jin, Yuan, Zhu, Qiyao, Reno, John L., & Kumar, Sushil. High power edge-cum-surface emitting terahertz laser arrays phased locked by vacuum guided plasmon waves. United States. https://doi.org/10.1063/1.5142860
Copy to clipboard
Jin, Yuan, Zhu, Qiyao, Reno, John L., and Kumar, Sushil. Tue . "High power edge-cum-surface emitting terahertz laser arrays phased locked by vacuum guided plasmon waves". United States. https://doi.org/10.1063/1.5142860. https://www.osti.gov/servlets/purl/1618091.
Copy to clipboard
@article{osti_1618091,
title = {High power edge-cum-surface emitting terahertz laser arrays phased locked by vacuum guided plasmon waves},
author = {Jin, Yuan and Zhu, Qiyao and Reno, John L. and Kumar, Sushil},
abstractNote = {Terahertz semiconductor quantum-cascade lasers (QCLs) are widely implemented with metallic cavities that support low-loss plasmonic optical modes at long wavelengths. However, resonant optical modes in such cavities suffer from poor radiative characteristics due to their subwavelength transverse dimensions. Consequently, single-mode terahertz QCLs with metallic cavities and large (>100 mW) output power have only been realized in the surface-emitting configuration that affords a large radiating surface. Here, we demonstrate a method to enhance radiative outcoupling from such plasmonic lasers for high-power emission in the edge-emitting (end-fire or longitudinal) direction. Single-sided plasmon waves propagating in vacuum are resonantly excited in surrounding medium of metallic cavities with the QCL semiconductor medium. The vacuum guided plasmon waves with a large wavefront phase-lock multiple metallic cavities longitudinally, which leads to intense radiation in multiple directions, including that in the longitudinal direction in a narrow single-lobed beam. The multicavity array radiates predominantly in a single spectral mode. A peak-power output of 260 mW and a slope efficiency of 303 mW/A are measured for the end-fire beam from a 3.3 THz QCL operating at 54 K in a Stirling cooler. Finally, single-mode operation and lithographic tuning across a bandwidth of ~150 GHz are demonstrated.},
doi = {10.1063/1.5142860},
journal = {Applied Physics Letters},
number = 13,
volume = 116,
place = {United States},
year = {Tue Mar 31 00:00:00 EDT 2020},
month = {Tue Mar 31 00:00:00 EDT 2020}
}
Copy to clipboard
Journal Article:
Free Publicly Available Full Text
Publisher's Version of Record
https://doi.org/10.1063/1.5142860
Copyright Statement
Other availability
Search WorldCat Search WorldCat to find libraries that may hold this journal
Citation Metrics:
Cited by: 1 work
Citation information provided by
Web of Science
Save / Share:
Export Metadata
Save to My Library
You must Sign In or Create an Account in order to save documents to your library.

Works referenced in this record:

Perfectly phase-matched third-order distributed feedback terahertz quantum-cascade lasers
journal, January 2012

  • Kao, Tsung-Yu; Hu, Qing; Reno, John L.
  • Optics Letters, Vol. 37, Issue 11
  • DOI: 10.1364/OL.37.002070

Gain measurements of scattering-assisted terahertz quantum cascade lasers
journal, June 2012

  • Burghoff, David; Wang Ivan Chan, Chun; Hu, Qing
  • Applied Physics Letters, Vol. 100, Issue 26
  • DOI: 10.1063/1.4732518

Low divergence Terahertz photonic-wire laser
journal, January 2010

  • Amanti, Maria I.; Scalari, Giacomo; Castellano, Fabrizio
  • Optics Express, Vol. 18, Issue 6
  • DOI: 10.1364/OE.18.006390

Interaction between optical nano-objects at metallo-dielectric interfaces
journal, July 2006

  • Lalanne, P.; Hugonin, J. P.
  • Nature Physics, Vol. 2, Issue 8
  • DOI: 10.1038/nphys364

Efficient power extraction in surface-emitting semiconductor lasers using graded photonic heterostructures
journal, January 2012

  • Xu, Gangyi; Colombelli, Raffaele; Khanna, Suraj P.
  • Nature Communications, Vol. 3, Issue 1
  • DOI: 10.1038/ncomms1958

Large static tuning of narrow-beam terahertz plasmonic lasers operating at 78K
journal, February 2017

  • Wu, Chongzhao; Jin, Yuan; Reno, John L.
  • APL Photonics, Vol. 2, Issue 2
  • DOI: 10.1063/1.4972127

Terahertz quantum-cascade lasers
journal, September 2007

Phase-locked photonic wire lasers by π coupling
journal, December 2018

Electromagnetic modeling of terahertz quantum cascade laser waveguides and resonators
journal, March 2005

  • Kohen, Stephen; Williams, Benjamin S.; Hu, Qing
  • Journal of Applied Physics, Vol. 97, Issue 5
  • DOI: 10.1063/1.1855394

Beam patterns of terahertz quantum cascade lasers with subwavelength cavity dimensions
journal, April 2006

  • Adam, A. J. L.; Kašalynas, I.; Hovenier, J. N.
  • Applied Physics Letters, Vol. 88, Issue 15
  • DOI: 10.1063/1.2194889

Terahertz plasmonic lasers with narrow beams and large tunability
conference, February 2017

  • Jin, Yuan; Wu, Chongzhao; Reno, John L.
  • SPIE OPTO, SPIE Proceedings
  • DOI: 10.1117/12.2253676

Terahertz quantum-cascade laser at λ≈100 μm using metal waveguide for mode confinement
journal, September 2003

  • Williams, Benjamin S.; Kumar, Sushil; Callebaut, Hans
  • Applied Physics Letters, Vol. 83, Issue 11
  • DOI: 10.1063/1.1611642

Spectral gain profile of a multi-stack terahertz quantum cascade laser
journal, November 2014

  • Bachmann, D.; Rösch, M.; Deutsch, C.
  • Applied Physics Letters, Vol. 105, Issue 18
  • DOI: 10.1063/1.4901316

Terahertz quantum cascade lasers operating up to ∼ 200 K with optimized oscillator strength and improved injection tunneling
journal, January 2012

  • Fathololoumi, S.; Dupont, E.; Chan, C. W. I.
  • Optics Express, Vol. 20, Issue 4
  • DOI: 10.1364/OE.20.003866

Terahertz plasmonic laser radiating in an ultra-narrow beam
journal, January 2016

Terahertz semiconductor-heterostructure laser
journal, May 2002

  • Köhler, Rüdeger; Tredicucci, Alessandro; Beltram, Fabio
  • Nature, Vol. 417, Issue 6885
  • DOI: 10.1038/417156a

Frequency Locking and Monitoring Based on Bi-directional Terahertz Radiation of a 3rd-Order Distributed Feedback Quantum Cascade Laser
journal, October 2015

  • van Marrewijk, N.; Mirzaei, B.; Hayton, D.
  • Journal of Infrared, Millimeter, and Terahertz Waves, Vol. 36, Issue 12
  • DOI: 10.1007/s10762-015-0210-4

Surface-emitting distributed feedback terahertz quantum-cascade lasers in metal-metal waveguides
journal, January 2007

  • Kumar, Sushil; Williams, Benjamin S.; Qin, Qi
  • Optics Express, Vol. 15, Issue 1
  • DOI: 10.1364/OE.15.000113

High power surface emitting terahertz laser with hybrid second- and fourth-order Bragg gratings
journal, April 2018

Terahertz quantum cascade VECSEL with watt-level output power
journal, July 2018

  • Curwen, Christopher A.; Reno, John L.; Williams, Benjamin S.
  • Applied Physics Letters, Vol. 113, Issue 1
  • DOI: 10.1063/1.5033910

Wave engineering with THz quantum cascade lasers
journal, August 2013

  • Sirtori, Carlo; Barbieri, Stefano; Colombelli, Raffaele
  • Nature Photonics, Vol. 7, Issue 9
  • DOI: 10.1038/nphoton.2013.208

Photonic Engineering Technology for the Development of Terahertz Quantum Cascade Lasers
journal, July 2019

  • Zeng, Yongquan; Qiang, Bo; Wang, Qi Jie
  • Advanced Optical Materials, Vol. 8, Issue 3
  • DOI: 10.1002/adom.201900573

Low-divergence single-mode terahertz quantum cascade laser
journal, September 2009

Quantum cascade lasers: 20 years of challenges
journal, January 2015

  • Vitiello, Miriam Serena; Scalari, Giacomo; Williams, Benjamin
  • Optics Express, Vol. 23, Issue 4
  • DOI: 10.1364/OE.23.005167

Thermoelectrically cooled THz quantum cascade laser operating up to 210 K
journal, July 2019

  • Bosco, L.; Franckié, M.; Scalari, G.
  • Applied Physics Letters, Vol. 115, Issue 1
  • DOI: 10.1063/1.5110305

Continuous-wave highly-efficient low-divergence terahertz wire lasers
journal, March 2018

    Sort by:
    [ × clear filter / sort ]

    Similar Records in DOE PAGES and OSTI.GOV collections: