Continuous-wave highly-efficient low-divergence terahertz wire lasers

Simone Biasco, Katia Garrasi, Fabrizio Castellano, Lianhe Li, Harvey E. Beere, David A. Ritchie, Edmund H. Linfield, A. Giles Davies and Miriam S. Vitiello ()
Additional contact information
Simone Biasco: CNR—Istituto Nanoscienze and Scuola Normale Superiore
Katia Garrasi: CNR—Istituto Nanoscienze and Scuola Normale Superiore
Fabrizio Castellano: CNR—Istituto Nanoscienze and Scuola Normale Superiore
Lianhe Li: University of Leeds
Harvey E. Beere: University of Cambridge
David A. Ritchie: University of Cambridge
Edmund H. Linfield: University of Leeds
A. Giles Davies: University of Leeds
Miriam S. Vitiello: CNR—Istituto Nanoscienze and Scuola Normale Superiore

Nature Communications, 2018, vol. 9, issue 1, 1-8

Abstract: Abstract Terahertz (THz) quantum cascade lasers (QCLs) have undergone rapid development since their demonstration, showing high power, broad-tunability, quantum-limited linewidth, and ultra-broadband gain. Typically, to address applications needs, continuous-wave (CW) operation, low-divergent beam profiles and fine spectral control of the emitted radiation, are required. This, however, is very difficult to achieve in practice. Lithographic patterning has been extensively used to this purpose (via distributed feedback (DFB), photonic crystals or microcavities), to optimize either the beam divergence or the emission frequency, or, both of them simultaneously, in third-order DFBs, via a demanding fabrication procedure that precisely constrains the mode index to 3. Here, we demonstrate wire DFB THz QCLs, in which feedback is provided by a sinusoidal corrugation of the cavity, defining the frequency, while light extraction is ensured by an array of surface holes. This new architecture, extendable to a broad range of far-infrared frequencies, has led to the achievement of low-divergent beams (10°), single-mode emission, high slope efficiencies (250 mW/A), and stable CW operation.

Date: 2018
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-018-03440-4 Abstract (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:nat:natcom:v:9:y:2018:i:1:d:10.1038_s41467-018-03440-4

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
https://www.nature.com/ncomms/

DOI: 10.1038/s41467-018-03440-4

Access Statistics for this article

Nature Communications is currently edited by Nathalie Le Bot, Enda Bergin and Fiona Gillespie

More articles in Nature Communications from Nature
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Sonal Shukla () and Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing ().