In-line Dual-Mode DBR Laser Diode for Terahertz Wave Source

Abstract

A dual-mode laser terahertz source consisting of two in-line distributed Bragg reflector (DBR) laser diodes (LD) is proposed. It is less susceptible to residual reflections from facets than an in-line dual-mode distributed feedback (DFB) LD. The characteristics of the proposed terahertz source are theoretically investigated using a split-step time-domain simulation. It is shown that terahertz waves of frequencies from 385 GHz to 1725 GHz can be generated by appropriate thermal tuning of two DBR LDs. The dual-mode DBR LD terahertz source exhibits good spectral quality for residual facet reflectivity below 0.02, but facet reflectivity of the in-line dual-mode DFB LD terahertz source should be below 0.002 to provide similar spectral quality.