Generating ultrafast pulses of light from quantum cascade lasers

Feihu Wang,Souad Moumdji,Kenneth Maussang,A Giles Davies,Joshua R Freeman,Raffaele Colombelli,Juliette Mangeney,Jérôme Tignon,Edmund H Linfield,Sukhdeep S Dhillon,Lianhe Li,Iman Kundu

doi:10.1364/optica.2.000944

Abstract

The generation of ultrashort pulses from quantum cascade lasers (QCLs) has proved to be challenging. It has been suggested that the ultrafast electron dynamics of these devices is the limiting factor for mode locking and, hence, pulse formation. Even so, the clear mode locking of terahertz (THz) QCLs has been demonstrated recently, but the exact mechanism for pulse generation is not fully understood. Here we demonstrate that the dominant factor necessary for active pulse generation is in fact the synchronization between the propagating electronic modulation and the generated THz pulse in the QCL. By using the phase-resolved detection of the electric field in QCLs embedded in metal–metal waveguides, we demonstrate that active mode locking requires the phase velocity of the microwave round-trip modulation to equal the group velocity of the THz pulse. This allows the THz pulse to propagate in phase with the microwave modulation along the gain medium, permitting short-pulse generation. Mode locking was performed on QCLs employing phonon depopulation active regions, permitting the coherent detection of large gain bandwidths (500 GHz) and the generation of 11 ps pulses centered around 2.6 THz when the above “phase-matching” condition is satisfied. This work brings an enhanced understanding of QCL mode locking and will permit new concepts to be explored to generate shorter and more intense pulses from mid-infrared, as well as THz, QCLs.

Highlights

Terahertz (THz) frequency quantum cascade lasers (QCLs) [1] are semiconductor devices based on intersubband transitions that can emit over the ~1 – 5 THz spectral range
Since the ultrafast gain recovery time inherent to QCLs is considerably shorter than the round-trip cavity time [4], it has been believed that these devices cannot be modelocked and unable to generate short pulses
We demonstrate active modelocking through injection seeding of THz QCLs based on the longitudinal-optical (LO) phonon depopulation active region scheme, embedded in metal-metal (MM) waveguides

Summary

INTRODUCTION

Terahertz (THz) frequency quantum cascade lasers (QCLs) [1] are semiconductor devices based on intersubband transitions that can emit over the ~1 – 5 THz spectral range. A further challenge to understanding QCL modelocking in the THz frequency range is that all demonstrations to date have been based on QCLs employing bound-to-continuum active region designs and fabricated in single plasmon waveguides These active regions were used as they have low electrical power requirements permitting continuous wave (CW) operation (or high duty cycles) whilst the single plasmon waveguides help provide high output powers. We demonstrate active modelocking through injection seeding of THz QCLs based on the longitudinal-optical (LO) phonon depopulation active region scheme, embedded in metal-metal (MM) waveguides These active regions provide large emission bandwidths, greater than 500 GHz, and the MM waveguide confines both the microwave modulation and THz emission. The fast direct modulation is permitted by the ultrafast gain recovery time which we determine experimentally to be ~ 5 ps, approaching that of mid-infrared QCLs (~1 ps)

SAMPLE

INJECTION SEEDING

ACTIVE MODELOCKING

DISCUSSION AND CONCLUSION