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

Optics Express

Volumn 20, Issue 4, 2012, Pages 3866-3876

  Fathololoumi, S ^a,c   Dupont, E ^a   Chan, C W I ^b   Wasilewski, Z R ^a   Laframboise, S R ^a   Ban, D ^c   Matyas A ^d   Jirauschek, C ^d   Hu, Q ^b   Liu, H C ^a,e  

^a NATIONAL RESEARCH COUNCIL CANADA   (Canada)

^b Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science   (United States)

^c UNIVERSITY OF WATERLOO   (Canada)

^d TECHNICAL UNIVERSITY OF MUNICH   (Germany)

^e SHANGHAI JIAO TONG UNIVERSITY   (China)

Author keywords

[No Author keywords available]

Indexed keywords

ELECTRIC FIELDS;

BLUE-SHIFTED; DENSITY MATRIX MODEL; GAIN SPECTRA; INTERSUBBAND TRANSITIONS; LASER FREQUENCY; LASING FREQUENCY; MONTE CARLO APPROACH; OPERATING TEMPERATURE; OSCILLATOR STRENGTHS; PEAK OUTPUT POWER; RESONANT PHONON; TEMPERATURE PERFORMANCE; TERAHERTZ QUANTUM-CASCADE LASERS; TUNNELING BARRIER; TUNNELING COUPLING; VOLTAGE DEPENDENCE;

OPTIMIZATION;

EID: 84863115345     PISSN: None     EISSN: 10944087     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1364/OE.20.003866     Document Type: Article

References (36)

1. R. Kohler, A. Tredicucci, F. Beltram, H. E. Beere, E. H. Linfield, A. G. Davies, D. Ritchie, R. C. Iotti, and F. Rossi, "Terahertz semiconductor-heterostructure laser," Nature 417, 156-159 (2002).
2. B. S. Williams, S. Kumar, Q. Hu, and J. L. Reno, "Operation of terahertz quantum-cascade lasers at 164 K in pulsed mode and at 117 K in continuous-wave mode," Opt. Express 13, 3331-3339 (2005).
3. H. Luo, S. R. Laframboise, Z. R. Wasilewski, and H. C. Liu, "Terahertz quantum cascade lasers based on a three-well active module," Appl. Phys. Lett. 90, 041112 (2007).
4. M. A. Belkin, J. A. Fan, S. Hormoz, F. Capasso, S. P. Khanna, M. Lachab, A. G. Davies, and E. H. Linfield, "Terahertz quantum cascade lasers with copper metal-metal waveguides operating up to 178 K," Opt. Express 16, 3242-3248 (2008).
5. S. Kumar, Q. Hu, and J. L. Reno, "186 K operation of terahertz quantum cascade lasers based on a diagonal design," Appl. Phys. Lett. 94, 131105 (2009).
6. S. Kumar, C.W. I. Chan, Q. Hu, and J. L. Reno, "A 1.8-THz quantum cascade laser operating significantly above the temperature of h̄ω/ΚB," Nat. Phys. 7, 166-171 (2011).
7. 0.85As terahertz quantum cascade lasers with double-phonon resonant depopulation operating up to 172 K," Appl. Phys. Lett. 97, 131111 (2010).
8. S. Kumar, C.W. I. Chan, Q. Hu, and J. L. Reno, "Two-well terahertz quantum-cascade laser with direct intrawellphonon depopulation," Appl. Phys. Lett. 95, 141110 (2009).
9. G. Scalari, M. I. Amanti, C. Walther, R. Terazzi, M. Beck, and J. Faist, "Broadband THz lasing from a photonphonon quantum cascade structure," Opt. Express 8, 8043-8052 (2010).
10. A. Wacker, "Extraction-controlled quantum cascade lasers," Appl. Phys. Lett. 97, 081105 (2010).
11. B. S. Williams, H. Callebaut, S. Kumar, Q. Hu, and J. L. Reno, "THz quantum cascade laser at λ≈ 100 μm using metal waveguide for mode confinement," Appl. Phys. Lett. 83, 2124-2126 (2003).
12. Q. Hu, B. S. Williams, S. Kumar, H. Callebaut, S. Kohen, and J. L. Reno, "Resonant-phonon-assisted THz quantum-cascade lasers with metal-metal waveguides," Semicond. Sci. Technol. 20, S228-S236 (2005).
13. S. Fathololoumi, E. Dupont, S. G. Razavipour, S. R. Laframboise, G. Parent, Z. Wasilewski, H. C. Liu, and D. Ban, "On metal contacts of terahertz quantum-cascade lasers with a metal-metal waveguide," Semicond. Sci. Technol. 26, 105021 (2011).
14. M. A. Belkin, Q. J. Wang, C. Pflügl, A. Belyanin, S. P. Khanna, A. G. Davies, E. H. Linfield, and F. Capasso, "High-temperature operation of terahertz quantum cascade laser sources," IEEE Sel. Top. Quantum Electron. 15, 952-967 (2009).
15. R. Terrazi and J. Faist, "A density matrix model of transport and radiation in quantum cascade lasers," New J. Phys. 12, 033045 (2010).
16. S. Kumar and Q. Hu, "Coherence of resonant-tunneling transport in terahertz quantum-cascade lasers," Phys. Rev. B 80, 245316 (2009).
17. E. Dupont, S. Fathololoumi, and H. C. Liu, "Simplified density matrix model applied to three-well terahertz quantum cascade lsers," Phys. Rev. B 81, 205311 (2010).
18. S. C. Lee and A. Wacker, "Nonequilibrium Greens function theory for transport and gain properties of quantum cascade structures," Phys. Rev. B 66, 245314 (2002).
19. T. Kubis, C. Yeh, P. Vogl, A. Benz, G. Fasching, and C. Deutsch, "Theory of nonequilibrium quantum transport and energy dissipation in terahertz quantum cascade lasers," Phys. Rev. B 79, 195323 (2009).
20. H. Callebaut, S. Kumar, B.S. Williams, Q. Hu, and J. L. Reno, "Analysis of transport properties of terahertz quantum cascade lasers," Appl. Phys. Lett. 83, 207-209 (2003).
21. H. Callebaut and Q. Hu, "Importance of coherence for electron transport in terahertz quantum cascade lasers," J. Appl. Phys. 98, 104505 (2005).
22. C. Jirauschek and P. Lugli, "Monte-Carlo-based spectral gain analysis for terahertz quantum cascade lasers," J. Appl. Phys. 105, 123102 (2009).
23. A. Mátyás, M. A. Belkin, P. Lugli, and C. Jirauschek, "Temperature performance analysis of terahertz quantum cascade lasers: Vertical versus diagonal designs," Appl. Phys. Lett. 96, 201110 (2010).
24. S. Fathololoumi, E. Dupont, S.R. Laframboise, Z. R.Wasilewski, D. Ban, and H. Liu, "Design of laser transition oscillator strength for THz quantum cascade lasers," Presented at Conference on Lasers and Electro-Optics, Baltimore, MD (2011).
25. H. Luo, S. R. Laframboise, Z. R. Wasilewski, and H. C. Liu, "Effects of injector barrier on performance of terahertz quantum-cascade lasers," IEEE Electron. Lett. 43, 633-635 (2007).
26. H. Luo, S. R. Laframboise, Z. R. Wasilewski, H. C. Liu, and J. C. Cao, "Effects of extraction barrier width on performance of terahertz quantum-cascade lasers," IEEE Electron. Lett. 44, 630-631 (2008).
27. S. Fathololoumi, E. Dupont, Z. R.Wasilewski, S. R. Laframboise, D. Ban, and H. C. Liu, "Effect of intermediate resonance on the performance of resonant phonon based terahertz quantum cascade laser," Presented at 11th International Conference on Intersubband Transitions in Quantum Wells, Badesi, Italy (2011).
28. S. Fathololoumi, D. Ban, H. Luo, E. Dupont, S. R. Laframboise, A. Boucherif, and H. C. Liu, "Thermal behavior investigation of terahertz quantum-cascade lasers," IEEE J. Quantum Electron. 44, 1139-1144 (2008).
29. S. Fathololoumi, E. Dupont, D. Ban, M. Graf, S. R. Laframboise, Z. Wasilewski, and H. C. Liu, "Time-resolved thermal quenching of THz quantum cascade lasers," IEEE J. Quantum Electron 46, 396-404 (2010).
30. S. Kumar, "Development of terahertz quantum-cascade lasers," Massachusetts Institute of Technology 163-166 (2007).
31. C. W. I. Chan, S. Fathololoumi, E. Dupont, Z. R. Wasilewski, S. R. Laframboise, D. Ban, Q. Hu, and H. C. Liu, "A terahertz quantum cascade laser operating up to 193 K," Presented at 11th International Conference on Intersubband Transitions in Quantum Wells, Badesi, Italy (2011).
32. J. Faist, F. Capasso, A. L. Hutchinson, L. Pfeiffer, and K.W.West, "Suppression of optical absorption by electricfield- induced quantum interference in coupled potential wells," Phys. Rev. Lett. 71, 3573-3576 (1993).
33. L. A. Dunbar, R. Houdré, G. Scalari, L. Sirigu, M. Giovannini, and J. Faist, "Small optical volume terahertz emitting microdisk quantum cascade lasers," Appl. Phys. Lett. 90, 141114 (2007).
34. C. Weber, A. Wacker, and A. Knorr, "Density-matrix theory of the optical dynamics and transport in quantum cascade structures: the role of coherence," Phys. Rev. B 79, 165322 (2007).
35. A.Mátyás, P. Lugli, and C. Jirauschek, "Photon-induced carrier transport in high efficiency midinfrared quantum cascade lasers," J. Appl. Phys. 110, 013108 (2011).
36. A. Mátyás, T. Kubis, P. Lugli, and C. Jirauschek, "Comparison between semiclassical and full quantum transport analysis of THz quantum cascade lasers," Physica E 42, 2628 (2010).