High power surface emitting terahertz laser with hybrid second- and fourth-order Bragg gratings

Jin, Yuan; Gao, Liang; Chen, Ji; Wu, Chongzhao; Reno, John L.; Kumar, Sushil

doi:10.1038/s41467-018-03697-9

Title: High power surface emitting terahertz laser with hybrid second- and fourth-order Bragg gratings

Journal Article · Wed Apr 11 00:00:00 EDT 2018 · Nature Communications

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-018-03697-9· OSTI ID:1464181

Jin, Yuan ^[1]; Gao, Liang ^[1]; Chen, Ji ^[1]; Wu, Chongzhao ^[1]; Reno, John L. ^[2]; Kumar, Sushil ^[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 surface-emitting distributed feedback (DFB) laser with second-order gratings typically excites an antisymmetric mode that has low radiative efficiency and a double-lobed far-field beam. The radiative efficiency could be increased by using curved and chirped gratings for infrared diode lasers, plasmon-assisted mode selection for mid-infrared quantum cascade lasers (QCLs), and graded photonic structures for terahertz QCLs. Here, we demonstrate a new hybrid grating scheme that uses a superposition of second and fourth-order Bragg gratings that excite a symmetric mode with much greater radiative efficiency. The scheme is implemented for terahertz QCLs with metallic waveguides. Peak power output of 170 mW with a slope-efficiency of 993 mW A^-1 is detected with robust single-mode single-lobed emission for a 3.4 THz QCL operating at 62 K. Finally, the hybrid grating scheme is arguably simpler to implement than aforementioned DFB schemes and could be used to increase power output for surface-emitting DFB lasers at any wavelength.

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

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

Grant/Contract Number:: AC04-94AL85000; NA0003525; ECCS 1351142; ECCS 1609168; CMMI 1437168

OSTI ID:: 1464181

Report Number(s):: SAND-2017-12008J; 658468

Journal Information:: Nature Communications, Vol. 9, Issue 1; ISSN 2041-1723

Publisher:: Nature Publishing GroupCopyright Statement

Country of Publication:: United States

Language:: English

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Cited by: 33 works

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Double-metal waveguide terahertz difference-frequency generation quantum cascade lasers with surface grating outcouplers Kim, Jae Hyun; Jung, Seungyong; Jiang, Yifan Applied Physics Letters, Vol. 113, Issue 16 https://doi.org/10.1063/1.5043095	journal	October 2018
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Eigenmodes of a lamellar optical grating: Profile, propagation, reflection, transmission, and nonadiabatic mode coupling Kocharovsky, V. V.; Reynolds, C. B.; Kocharovsky, Vl. V. Physical Review A, Vol. 100, Issue 5 https://doi.org/10.1103/physreva.100.053854	journal	November 2019
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