External-cavity beam combining of 4-channel quantum cascade lasers

We demonstrate an external-cavity (EC) beam combining of 4-channel quantum cascade lasers (QCLs) with an output coupler which makes different QCL beams propagating coaxially. A beam combining efficiency of 35% (up to 75% near threshold) is obtained with a beam quality M² of 5.5. A peak power of 0.64 W is achieved at a wavelength of 4.7 μm. The differences of spot characteristic between coupled and uncoupled are also showed in this letter. The QCLs in this EC system do not have heat crosstalk so that the system can be used for high power beam combining of QCLs.     

Very low threshold operation of quantum cascade lasers

A strain-compensated InP-based quantum cascade laser(QCL) structure emitting at 4.6 μm is demonstrated,based on a two-phonon resonant design and grown by solid-source molecular beam epitaxy(MBE).By optimizing the growth parameters,a very high quality heterostructure with the lowest threshold current densities ever reported for QCLs was fabricated.Threshold current densities as low as 0.47 kA/cm~2 in pulsed operation and 0.56 kA/cm~2 in continuous-wave(cw) operation at 293 K were achieved for this state-of-the-art QCL.A minimum power consumption of 3.65 W was measured for the QCL,uncooled,with a high-reflectivity(HR) coating on its rear facet.     

Passive synthesis rules of coupled-cavity quantum cascade lasers

A new approach to passive electromagnetic modelling of coupled–cavity quantum cascade lasers is presented in this paper. One of challenges in the rigorous analysis of such eigenvalue problem is its large size as compared to wavelength and a high quality factor, which prompts for substantial computational efforts. For those reasons, it is proposed in this paper to consider such a coupled-cavity Fabry-Perot resonant structure with partially transparent mirrors as a two-port network, which can be considered as a deterministic problem. Thanks to such a novel approach, passive analysis of an electrically long laser can be split into a cascade of relatively short sections having low quality factor, thus, substantially speeding up rigorous electromagnetic analysis of the whole quantum cascade laser. The proposed method allows to determine unequivocally resonant frequencies of the structure and the corresponding spectrum of a threshold gain. Eventually, the proposed method is used to elaborate basic synthesis rules of coupled–cavity quantum cascade lasers.     

Modelling of temperature effects on the characteristics of mid-infrared quantum cascade lasers

The effect of temperature on the characteristics of GaAs/AlGaAs quantum cascade lasers operating in the mid-infrared range is theoretically investigated and compared with reported experimental results. We have included the dependence of the phonon scattering rate, linewidth variations and thermionic lifetime on temperature. It is found that the characteristics depend strongly on temperature. Our model yields threshold current densities in good agreement with the experiments. The effect of injection efficiency on the unsaturated modal gain is also considered.     

太赫兹量子级联激光器研究进展

太赫兹技术涉及电磁学、光电子学、半导体物理学、材料科学以及微加工技术等多个学科，它在信息科学、生物学、医学、天文学、环境科学等领域有重要的应用价值．太赫兹辐射源是太赫兹频段应用的关键器件．本文简要介绍了太赫兹电磁波的研究背景、重要特点以及潜在应用，重点讨论了太赫兹半导体量子级联激光器的工作原理和研究进展等．     

太赫兹量子级联激光器研究进展

太赫兹技术涉及电磁学、光电子学、半导体物理学、材料科学以及微加工技术等多个学科,它在信息科学、生物学、医学、天文学、环境科学等领域有重要的应用价值.太赫兹辐射源是太赫兹频段应用的关键器件.本文简要介绍了太赫兹电磁波的研究背景、重要特点以及潜在应用,重点讨论了太赫兹半导体量子级联激光器的工作原理和研究进展等.     

ZnO-based terahertz quantum cascade lasers

High-power terahertz sources operating at room-temperature are promising for many applications such as explosive materials detection, non-invasive medical imaging, and high speed telecommunication. Here we report the results of a simulation study, which shows the significantly improved performance of room-temperature terahertz quantum cascade lasers (THz QCLs) based on a ZnMgO/ZnO material system employing a 2-well design scheme with variable barrier heights and a delta-doped injector well. We found that by varying and optimizing constituent layer widths and doping level of the injector well, high power performance of THz QCLs can be achieved at room temperature: optical gain and radiation frequency is varied from 108 cm^?1 @ 2.18 THz to 300 cm^?1 @ 4.96 THz. These results show that among II–VI compounds the ZnMgO/ZnO material system is optimally suited for high-performance room-temperature THz QCLs.     

Synchronization of quantum cascade lasers with mutual optoelectronic coupling

In this study, the operating conditions to obtain complete synchronization in two quantum cascade lasers with mutual optoelectronic coupling are analyzed. Synchronization properties and the effect of parameter mismatches on synchronization quality are investigated. The present simulation shows that the complete synchronization can be realized under suitable system parameters. The results of the present simulation indicate that the significant effects of coupling strength, photon lifetime and gain stages number on the synchronization quality. On the other hand, the present results indicate that the insignificant effect of the feedback delay time, the coupling delay time and the synchronization can occur at any delay-time conditions (DTCs).     

External cavity coherent quantum cascade laser array

We report on the development of a coherent quantum cascade laser array that consists in the fabrication of multi-stripes array. The main characteristic of this kind of source is that an anti-symmetrical signature with two lobes is obtained in the far field. Taking advantage of this drawback, a grating is aligned with one lobe of the source. Thus a Littrow configuration is designed that permit to obtain a wide tunability of the source. First results are presented and a preliminary test of the source is realized by measurements on acetone.     

Quasi-continuous-wave operation of AlGaAs/GaAs quantum cascade lasers

Quasi-continuous-wave operation of AlGaAs/GaAs-based quantum cascade lasers (λ9 μm) up to 165 K is reported. The strong temperature dependence of the threshold current density and its higher value in high duty cycle is investigated in detail. The self-heating effect in the active region is explored by changing the operating duty cycles. The degradation of lasing performance with temperature is explained.     

Measurements of the linewidth of a continuous-wave distributed feedback quantum cascade laser

Two-sample (Allan) variance with a modified algorithm was applied to the determination of the experimental linewidth of a thermoelectrically-cooled continuous-wave distributed feedback quantum cascade laser at a wavelength of 4.333 μm. From successive laser transmittance scans over the CO₂ ν₃, (01¹1 − 01¹0) P(33) absorption line at 2307.653 cm^− 1, two-sample variances were calculated for the laser frequency difference between different points on the sides of the absorption peak. From the minimum two-sample variance of the laser frequency difference between two adjacent points (5 μs between the points) on the same side of the absorption line the experimental laser linewidth was estimated to be less than 36(7) kHz at a laser power of ~ 25 mW, a laser current of 976 mA and a laser temperature of + 19.5 °C.     

Complete rate equation modelling of quantum cascade lasers for the analysis of temperature effects

The effect of temperature on the dynamics of a GaAs-based quantum cascade laser (QCL) is analysed using a complete rate equation model. The analytical expressions for the threshold current density and the output power are derived using the model and the thermal behaviour of these parameters is examined. A better conformity of the threshold current density with experiment at higher temperatures is achieved. The effect of temperature on the 3 dB optical bandwidth is further investigated using the same model. A comparative analysis of the model is performed with the recently reported rate equation models. It is observed that the 3 dB optical bandwidth falls more rapidly at higher operating temperatures that highlight the effects of leakage and backscattering processes present in the device.     

Recent progress in the development of type II interband cascade lasers

Type-II interband cascade lasers combine the advantage of an interband optical transition with interband tunneling to enable the cascading of type-II quantum well active regions as is done in type-I quantum cascade laser. The relatively high radiative efficiency resulting from interband optical transitions translates into very low-threshold current densities, and when combined with the high quantum efficiency of cascade lasers, this diode laser design has the potential to operate under cw conditions at room temperature with high output power. Experimental results have already demonstrated some of this potential including high differential external quantum efficiency (>600%), high peak output power (6 W/facet at 80 K), high cw power conversion efficiency (>17% at 80 K), and operation at 300 K under pulsed conditions. Recent work aimed at reducing device thermal resistance and increasing cw operating temperature is reviewed including the demonstration of significant reductions in thermal resistance (averaging 25 K/W or 40% for 1-mm-long devices), 80 K cw operation at 3.4 μm with high-power conversion efficiency (23%) and high differential external quantum efficiency (532%), and cw operation up to 214 K.     

锥形太赫兹量子级联激光器输出功率与光束特性研究

针对锥形太赫兹量子级联激光器, 利用有限差分波束传播法和速率方程法, 建立了准三维的太赫兹有源器件仿真模型, 能够对具有轴向非线性波导结构的激光器进行模拟. 利用此模型, 研究了锥角大小对激光器输出光功率及光束质量的影响. 仿真结果表明, 考虑到器件之间的光耦合效率, 为了达到最大的有效输出光功率, 锥形太赫兹量子级联激光器的锥角存在一个最优值.     

基于中红外分布反馈量子级联激光器的光声光谱技术用于痕量甲烷气体检测

由于工业监控和环境检测的需要,甲烷气体检测日益得到人们的关注。研究了基于中红外分布反馈量子级联激光器(DFB-QCL)的光声光谱技术,并应用于痕量甲烷的检测。自主研发的DFB-QCL室温工作时的激射波长在7.6μm附近,覆盖了甲烷的特征吸收谱线1 316.83cm-1。待测甲烷气体充入亥姆霍兹光声谐振腔中,DFB-QCL的工作频率为234Hz、室温脉冲工作时峰值功率为80mW。中红外光经过甲烷吸收后,产生的声波信号经麦克风检测,由锁相放大器对信号进行采集并输入计算机进行处理。按信噪比为1计算,得到甲烷的探测极限为189nmol.mol-1。     

The effect of external cavity reflectivity on the dynamic behaviors of quantum cascade laser

The effect of external reflectivity on the dynamic behaviors of quantum cascade laser coupled to external cavity is theoretically investigated. Our model is based on three-level rate equations including the dependence of the loss on external cavity parameters. We find in particular that the effective reflectivity, photon lifetime and threshold current are strongly influenced by the external cavity length and external reflectivity. The optimum external cavity length (L_ext) is about 4?cm. We also show that the external cavity reflectivity influences significantly the dynamics of the electron number in the upper and lower laser levels, population inversion, and photon numbers in the Fabry Perot and in the external cavities. In addition, the external cavity reflectivity dependences of turn-on delay time (t_th) is also studied and discussed.     

Potential‐inserted quantum well design for quantum cascade terahertz lasers

We report on a new design of terahertz quantum cascade laser based on a single, potential‐inserted quantum well active region. The quantum well properties are engineered through single monolayer InAs inserts. The modeling is based on atomistic, spds* tight‐binding calculations, and performances are compared to that of the classical three‐well design. We obtain a 100% increase of the oscillator strength per unit length, while maintaining a high, nearly temperature‐independent contrast between phonon‐induced relaxation times of the upper and lower lasing states. The improved performances are expected to allow THz lasing at room temperature.     

Electroluminescence from Si/SiGe quantum cascade emitters

Intersubband electroluminescence results are presented from Si/SiGe quantum cascade emitters at 3.2 THz and at temperatures up to 150 K. The effect of adding doping into the active quantum wells was studied in addition to reduced barrier widths from previous measurements. While the current through the sample is increased by the addition of doping, the emitted power is reduced through additional free carrier absorption and Coulombic scattering. Free electron laser measurements confirm the intersubband transitions in the quantum wells of the cascade devices and produce non-radiative lifetimes of 20 ps between 4 and 150 K.