Ultra-low threshold lasing through phase front engineering via a metallic circular aperture

Zhixin Wang (), Filippos Kapsalidis, Ruijun Wang, Mattias Beck and Jérôme Faist ()
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Zhixin Wang: ETH Zürich, Institute of Quantum Electronics
Filippos Kapsalidis: ETH Zürich, Institute of Quantum Electronics
Ruijun Wang: ETH Zürich, Institute of Quantum Electronics
Mattias Beck: ETH Zürich, Institute of Quantum Electronics
Jérôme Faist: ETH Zürich, Institute of Quantum Electronics

Nature Communications, 2022, vol. 13, issue 1, 1-6

Abstract: Abstract Semiconductor lasers with extremely low threshold power require a combination of small volume active region with high-quality-factor cavities. For ridge lasers with highly reflective coatings, an ultra-low threshold demands significantly suppressing the diffraction loss at the facets of the laser. Here, we demonstrate that introducing a subwavelength aperture in the metallic highly reflective coating of a laser can correct the phase front, thereby counter-intuitively enhancing both its modal reflectivity and transmissivity at the same time. Theoretical and experimental results manifest a decreasing in the mirror loss by over 40% and an increasing in the transmissivity by 104. Implementing this method on a small-cavity quantum cascade laser, room-temperature continuous-wave lasing operation at 4.5 μm wavelength with an electrical consumption power of only 143 mW is achieved. Our work suggests possibilities for future portable applications and can be implemented in a broad range of optoelectronic systems.

Date: 2022
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DOI: 10.1038/s41467-021-27927-9

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