Injection-locking of terahertz quantum cascade lasers up to 35GHz via RF amplitude modulation

Author

Gellie, P. ; Barbieri, S. ; Lampin, J.F. ; Filloux, P. ; Manquest, C. ; Sirtori, C. ; Sagnes, I. ; Khanna, S.P. ; Linfield, E.H. ; Beere, H.E. ; Ritchie, D.A.

Author_Institution

Lab. MPQ, Univ. Paris 7, Paris, France

fYear

2010

fDate

5-10 Sept. 2010

Firstpage

1

Lastpage

2

Abstract

We demonstrate that the cavity resonance frequency - the round-trip frequency - of terahertz quantum cascade lasers can be injection-locked by direct modulation of the bias current using an RF source. Metal-metal and single-plasmon waveguide devices with roundtrip frequencies up to 35GHz have been studied, and show locking ranges above 200MHz. Inside this locking range the laser round-trip frequency is phase-locked, with a phase noise determined by the RF-synthesizer. We find a square-root dependence of the locking range with RF-power in agreement with classical injection-locking theory. These results are discussed in the context of mode-locking operation.

Keywords

amplitude modulation; frequency synthesizers; laser mode locking; millimetre wave lasers; quantum cascade lasers; RF amplitude modulation; RF-synthesizer; cavity resonance frequency; frequency 35 GHz; injection-locking theory; metal-metal waveguide devices; round-trip frequency; single-plasmon waveguide devices; terahertz quantum cascade lasers injection-locking; Amplitude modulation; Bandwidth; Frequency modulation; Mixers; Optical waveguides; Quantum cascade lasers; Radio frequency;

fLanguage

English

Publisher

ieee

Conference_Titel

Infrared Millimeter and Terahertz Waves (IRMMW-THz), 2010 35th International Conference on

Conference_Location

Rome

Print_ISBN

978-1-4244-6655-9

Type

conf

DOI

10.1109/ICIMW.2010.5612807

Filename

5612807