Large tuning of narrow-beam terahertz plasmonic lasers operating at 78 K

Wu, Chongzhao; Jin, Yuan; Reno, John L.; Kumar, Sushil

doi:10.1063/1.4972127

Title: Large tuning of narrow-beam terahertz plasmonic lasers operating at 78 K

Journal Article · Mon Dec 19 00:00:00 EST 2016 · APL Photonics

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1063/1.4972127· OSTI ID:1343060

Wu, Chongzhao ^[1]; Jin, Yuan ^[1]; Reno, John L. ^[2];

^[1]

Lehigh Univ., Bethlehem, PA (United States). Dept. of Electrical and Computer Engineering
Sandia National Lab. (SNL-NM), Albuquerque, NM (United States). Center of Integrated Nanotechnologies

A new tuning mechanism is demonstrated for single-mode metal-clad plasmonic lasers, in which the refractive-index of the laser’s surrounding medium affects the resonant-cavity mode in the same vein as the refractive-index of gain medium inside the cavity. Reversible, continuous, and mode-hop-free tuning of ~57 GHz is realized for single-mode narrow-beam terahertz plasmonic quantum-cascade lasers (QCLs), which is demonstrated at a much more practical temperature of 78 K. The tuning is based on post-process deposition/etching of a dielectric (silicon-dioxide) on a QCL chip that has already been soldered and wire-bonded onto a copper mount. This is a considerably larger tuning range compared to previously reported results for terahertz QCLs with directional far-field radiation patterns. The key enabling mechanism for tuning is a recently developed antenna-feedback scheme for plasmonic lasers, which leads to the generation of hybrid surface-plasmon-polaritons propagating outside the cavity of the laser with a large spatial extent. The effect of dielectric deposition on QCL’s characteristics is investigated in detail including that on maximum operating temperature, peak output power, and far-field radiation patterns. Single-lobed beam with low divergence (<7°) is maintained through the tuning range. The antenna-feedback scheme is ideally suited for modulation of plasmonic lasers and their sensing applications due to the sensitive dependence of spectral and radiative properties of the laser on its surrounding medium.

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Research Organization:: Sandia National Lab. (SNL-NM), Albuquerque, NM (United States); Lehigh Univ., Bethlehem, PA (United States)

Sponsoring Organization:: USDOE Office of Science (SC), Basic Energy Sciences (BES); National Science Foundation (NSF)

Grant/Contract Number:: AC04-94AL85000; ECCS 1351142; CMMI 1437168

OSTI ID:: 1343060

Report Number(s):: SAND2016-8989J; 647329; TRN: US1701124

Journal Information:: APL Photonics, Vol. 2, Issue 2; ISSN 2378-0967

Publisher:: American Institute of Physics (AIP)Copyright Statement

Country of Publication:: United States

Language:: English

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Cited by: 14 works

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Electrical tuning of a terahertz quantum cascade laser based on detuned intersubband absorption Gao, Liang; Zhao, Le; Reno, John L. Applied Physics Letters, Vol. 115, Issue 14 https://doi.org/10.1063/1.5118770	journal	September 2019
Key Roles of Plasmonics in Wireless THz Nanocommunications—A Survey Lallas, Efthymios Applied Sciences, Vol. 9, Issue 24 https://doi.org/10.3390/app9245488	journal	December 2019

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