High-power electrically pumped terahertz topological laser based on a surface metallic Dirac-vortex cavity

• Published in: Nature communications 2024-05, Vol.15 (1), p.4431-7, Article 4431
• Main Authors: Liu, Junhong, Xu, Yunfei, Li, Rusong, Sun, Yongqiang, Xin, Kaiyao, Zhang, Jinchuan, Lu, Quanyong, Zhuo, Ning, Liu, Junqi, Wang, Lijun, Cheng, Fengmin, Liu, Shuman, Liu, Fengqi, Zhai, Shenqiang
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: 142/126; 147/135; 639/624/1020/1092; 639/624/400/561; 639/766/119/2792; Defects; Design; Electrodes; Humanities and Social Sciences; Laser applications; Lasers; multidisciplinary; Scanning electron microscopy; Science; Science (multidisciplinary); Semiconductors; Topology; Vortices
• ISSN: 2041-1723; 2041-1723
• DOI: 10.1038/s41467-024-48788-y

Topological lasers (TLs) have attracted widespread attention due to their mode robustness against perturbations or defects. Among them, electrically pumped TLs have gained extensive research interest due to their advantages of compact size and easy integration. Nevertheless, limited studies on electrically pumped TLs have been reported in the terahertz (THz) and telecom wavelength ranges with relatively low output powers, causing a wide gap between practical applications. Here, we introduce a surface metallic Dirac-vortex cavity (SMDC) design to solve the difficulty of increasing power for electrically pumped TLs in the THz spectral range. Due to the strong coupling between the SMDC and the active region, robust 2D topological defect lasing modes are obtained. More importantly, enough gain and large radiative efficiency provided by the SMDC bring in the increase of the output power to a maximum peak power of 150 mW which demonstrates the practical application potential of electrically pumped TLs. The researchers showcase an exciting surface metallic Dirac-vortex cavity design with enhanced power capabilities for electrically pumped Topological Lasers in the THz spectral range.