Terahertz quantum cascade lasers

Author

Hu, Qing ; Williams, Benjamin S. ; Kumar, Sushil ; Callebaut, Hans ; Reno, John L.

Author_Institution

Dept. of Electr. Eng., MIT, Cambridge, MA, USA

Volume

1

fYear

2003

fDate

27-28 Oct. 2003

Firstpage

342

Abstract

We report our successful development of THz quantum cascade lasers with two unique features. The intersubband gain medium is based on resonant optical phonon scattering to depopulate the lower lasing level, and the THz mode confinement is achieved using a metal-semiconductor-metal waveguide. To date, lasing has been achieved at wavelengths longer than 100 mW and above liquid nitrogen temperature. Maximum peak power levels exceed 10 mW and more than 4 mW of power is still available at liquid nitrogen temperature.

Keywords

electron-phonon interactions; laser modes; laser transitions; metal-semiconductor-metal structures; optical waveguides; quantum cascade lasers; submillimetre wave lasers; 77 K; THz mode confinement; intersubband gain medium; liquid nitrogen temperature; metal-semiconductor-metal waveguide; resonant optical phonon scattering; terahertz quantum cascade lasers; Frequency; Laser modes; Laser transitions; Optical scattering; Optical superlattices; Optical waveguides; Particle scattering; Quantum cascade lasers; Resonance; Temperature;

fLanguage

English

Publisher

ieee

Conference_Titel

Lasers and Electro-Optics Society, 2003. LEOS 2003. The 16th Annual Meeting of the IEEE

ISSN

1092-8081

Print_ISBN

0-7803-7888-1

Type

conf

DOI

10.1109/LEOS.2003.1251785

Filename

1251785