Q. Y. Lu

2.4 W room temperature continuous wave operation of distributed feedback quantum cascade lasers

We demonstrate high power continuous-wave room-temperature operation surface-grating distributed feedback quantum cascade lasers at 4.8 μm. High power single mode operation benefits from a combination of high-reflection and antireflection coatings. Maximum single-facet continuous-wave output power of 2.4 W and peak wall plug efficiency of 10% from one facet is obtained at 298 K. Single mode operation with a side mode suppression ratio of 30 dB and single-lobed far field without beam steering is observed.

Room temperature single-mode terahertz sources based on intracavity difference-frequency generation in quantum cascade lasers

We demonstrate room temperature single-mode THz emission at 4 THz based on intracavity difference-frequency generation from mid-infrared dual-wavelength quantum cascade lasers. An integrated dual-period distributed feedback grating is defined on the cap layer to purify both mid-infrared pumping wavelengths and in turn the THz spectra. Single mode operation of the pumping wavelengths results in a single-mode THz operation with a narrow linewidth of 6.6 GHz. A maximum THz power of 8.5 μW with a power conversion efficiency of 10 μW/W2 is obtained at room temperature.

Quantum cascade lasers: from tool to product

The quantum cascade laser (QCL) is an important laser source in the mid-infrared and terahertz frequency range. The past twenty years have witnessed its tremendous development in power, wall plug efficiency, frequency coverage and tunability, beam quality, as well as various applications based on QCL technology. Nowadays, QCLs can deliver high continuous wave power output up to 5.1 W at room temperature, and cover a wide frequency range from 3 to 300 μm by simply varying the material components. Broadband heterogeneous QCLs with a broad spectral range from 3 to 12 μm, wavelength agile QCLs based on monolithic sampled grating design, and on-chip beam QCL combiner are being developed for the next generation tunable mid-infrared source for spectroscopy and sensing. Terahertz sources based on nonlinear generation in QCLs further extend the accessible wavelength into the terahertz range. Room temperature continuous wave operation, high terahertz power up to 1.9 mW, and wide frequency tunability form 1 to 5 THz makes this type of device suitable for many applications in terahertz spectroscopy, imaging, and communication.

Continuous operation of a monolithic semiconductor terahertz source at room temperature

We demonstrate room temperature continuous wave THz sources based on intracavity difference-frequency generation from mid-infrared quantum cascade lasers. Buried ridge, buried composite distributed-feedback waveguide with Cerenkov phase-matching scheme is used to reduce the waveguide loss and enhance the heat dissipation for continuous wave operation. Continuous emission at 3.6 THz with a side-mode suppression ratio of 20 dB and output power up to 3 μW are achieved, respectively. THz peak power is further scaled up to 1.4 mW in pulsed mode by increasing the mid-infrared power through increasing the active region doping and device area.

Widely tuned room temperature terahertz quantum cascade laser sources based on difference-frequency generation

We demonstrate room temperature THz quantum cascade laser sources with a broad spectral coverage based on intracavity difference-frequency generation. Two mid-infrared active cores based on the single-phonon resonance scheme are designed with a THz nonlinearity specially optimized at the high operating fields that correspond to the highest mid-infrared output powers. A Cerenkov phase-matching scheme along with integrated dual-period distributed feedback gratings are used for efficient THz extraction and spectral purification. Single mode emissions from 1.0 to 4.6 THz with a side-mode suppression ratio and output power up to 40 dB and 32 μW are obtained, respectively.

Sampled grating, distributed feedback quantum cascade lasers with broad tunability and continuous operation at room temperature

A dual-section, single-mode quantum cascade laser is demonstrated in continuous wave at room temperature with up to 114 nm (50 cm−1) of tuning near a wavelength of 4.8 μm. Power above 100 mW is demonstrated, with a mean side mode suppression ratio of 24 dB. By changing the grating period, 270 nm (120 cm−1) of gap-free electrical tuning for a single gain medium has been realized.

Widely tunable room temperature semiconductor terahertz source

We present a widely tunable, monolithic terahertz source based on intracavity difference frequency generation within a mid-infrared quantum cascade laser at room temperature. A three-section ridge waveguide laser design with two sampled grating sections and a distributed-Bragg section is used to achieve the terahertz (THz) frequency tuning. Room temperature single mode THz emission with a wide tunable frequency range of 2.6–4.2 THz (∼47% of the central frequency) and THz power up to 0.1 mW is demonstrated, making such device an ideal candidate for THz spectroscopy and sensing.

Recent advances in mid infrared (3-5µm) Quantum Cascade Lasers

Quantum cascade laser (QCL) is an important source of electromagnetic radiation in mid infrared region. Recent research in mid-IR QCLs has resulted in record high wallplug efficiency (WPE), high continuous wave (CW) output power, single mode operation and wide tunability. CW output power of 5.1 W with 21% WPE has been achieved at room temperature (RT). A record high WPE of 53% at 40K has been demonstrated. Operation wavelength of QCL in CW at RT has been extended to as short as 3µm. Very high peak power of 190 W has been obtained from a broad area QCL of ridge width 400µm. 2.4W RT, CW power output has been achieved from a distributed feedback (DFB) QCL. Wide tuning based on dual section sample grating DFB QCLs has resulted in individual tuning of 50cm−1 and 24 dB side mode suppression ratio with continuous wave power greater than 100mW.

Room temperature terahertz quantum cascade laser sources with 215 μW output power through epilayer-down mounting

We report room temperature terahertz (THz) quantum cascade laser sources with high power based on difference frequency generation. The device is Cerenkov phase matched and spectrally purified with an integrated dual-period distributed-feedback grating. Symmetric current injection and epilayer-down mounting of the device onto a patterned submount are used to improve the electrical uniformity and heat removal, respectively. The epilayer-down mounting also allows for THz anti-reflective coating to enhance the THz outcoupling efficiency. Single mode emission at 3.5 THz with a side-mode suppression ratio and output power up to 30 dB and 215 μW are obtained, respectively.

Room-temperature continuous wave operation of distributed feedback quantum cascade lasers with watt-level power output

We demonstrate surface-grating distributed feedback quantum cascade lasers (QCLs) with a watt-level power output at 4.75 μm. A device with a 5 mm cavity length exhibits an output power of 1.1 W in room-temperature cw operation. Single-mode operation with a side mode suppression ratio of 30 dB is obtained in the working temperature of 15–105 °C. A double-lobed far field with negligible beam steering is observed. The significance of this demonstration lies in its simplicity and readiness to be applied to standard QCL wafers with the promise of high-power performances.