Short Injector Quantum Cascade Lasers

We report our study on the effects of shortened quantum cascade (QC) laser injector regions. While conventional short-wavelength QC lasers typically have around seven or more injector region quantum wells, we investigate QC structures with three and two injector wells. Improvements in threshold curr...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Published in:IEEE journal of quantum electronics 2010-05, Vol.46 (5), p.591-600
Main Authors: Franz, K.J., Liu, P.Q., Raftery, J., Escarra, M.D., Hoffman, A.J., Howard, S.S., Yu Yao, Dikmelik, Y., Xiaojun Wang, Jen-Yu Fan, Khurgin, J.B., Gmachl, C.
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Density
Injectors
Instability
Laser transitions
Lasers
Midinfrared
negative differential resistance
Optical design
Power generation
Quality control
quantum cascade (QC) laser
Quantum cascade lasers
Quantum electronics
Quantum well lasers
Quantum wells
Semiconductor lasers
short injector
Temperature
Thermal management
Threshold current
Threshold currents
Waveguide lasers
Citations: Items that this one cites
Items that cite this one
Online Access:Get full text
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
Description
Summary:We report our study on the effects of shortened quantum cascade (QC) laser injector regions. While conventional short-wavelength QC lasers typically have around seven or more injector region quantum wells, we investigate QC structures with three and two injector wells. Improvements in threshold currents, output powers, and wall-plug efficiencies are expected for fundamental reasons. At heat sink temperatures near 80 K, we observe threshold current densities less than 0.5 kA/cm 2 , nearly 4 W peak output power, and wall-plug efficiencies in excess of 20%. At room temperature, we see threshold current densities around 2.3 kA/cm 2 , output powers in excess of 1 W, and wall-plug efficiencies around 7.6%. We also observe new effects in midinfrared QC lasers, such as a pronounced negative differential resistance, pulse instabilities, and multiple and varied turn-off mechanisms. These effects result from the greatly abbreviated injector regions with highly discrete states.
ISSN:0018-9197
1558-1713
DOI:10.1109/JQE.2009.2030896