Waveguide Quantum Cascade Research Articles

High peak power quantum cascade lasers monolithically integrated onto silicon with high yield and good near-term reliability

High peak power, room-temperature operation in the long wave infrared spectral region is reported for double-channel, ridge waveguide quantum cascade lasers (QCLs) monolithically integrated onto a silicon substrate. The 55-stage laser structure with an AlInAs/InGaAs core and InP cladding was grown by molecular beam epitaxy directly onto an 8-in. diameter germanium-coated silicon substrate template via a III–V alloy metamorphic buffer. Atomic force microscope imaging demonstrated a good quality surface for the full QCL structure grown on silicon, with improved roughness over wider areas compared to the previous work. Fabricated 3 mm × 26 μm lasers operate at room temperature, deliver more than 3 W of peak (6 mW of average) optical power, and show approximately 3% wall plug efficiency and 4.3 kA/cm2 threshold current density with emission wavelength centered at 11.5 μm. The lasers had a high yield with only around 15% max power deviation and no signs of performance degradation were observed over a 10 h burn in period at maximum power. Singled-lobed high quality output beam with M2 = 1.36 was measured for 3 mm × 22 μm devices, demonstrating that it is possible to produce high-brightness quantum cascade lasers on silicon with standard ridge waveguide processing paving the way for low-cost production of integrated mid-infrared platforms.

Beam combining of a broadly and continuously tunable quantum cascade laser.

We report a cost-efficient method to demonstrate the beam combining of five laser elements in an array of tunable slot waveguide quantum cascade lasers in the mid-infrared region at around 10 µm. An aspherical lens with five fine-tuned mini mirrors was employed to collimate the individual beams from the laser array. To verify the feasibility of this beam combining approach, the combined beams were coupled into a hollow-core fiber gas cell with a low numerical aperture (N.A.) of 0.03 and a coupling efficiency >= 0.82, for gas sensing of binary compound gases of ammonia and ethylene simultaneously.

Design and simulation of losses in Ge/SiGe terahertz quantum cascade laser waveguides.

The waveguide losses from a range of surface plasmon and double metal waveguides for Ge/Si1-xGex THz quantum cascade laser gain media are investigated at 4.79 THz (62.6 μm wavelength). Double metal waveguides demonstrate lower losses than surface plasmonic guiding with minimum losses for a 10 μm thick active gain region with silver metal of 21 cm-1 at 300 K reducing to 14.5 cm-1 at 10 K. Losses for silicon foundry compatible metals including Al and Cu are also provided for comparison and to provide a guide for gain requirements to enable lasers to be fabricated in commercial silicon foundries. To allow these losses to be calculated for a range of designs, the complex refractive index of a range of nominally undoped Si1-xGex with x = 0.7, 0.8 and 0.9 and doped Ge heterolayers were extracted from Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy measurements between 0.1 and 10 THz and from 300 K down to 10 K. The results demonstrate losses comparable to similar designs of GaAs/AlGaAs quantum cascade laser plasmon waveguides indicating that a gain threshold of 15.1 cm-1 and 23.8 cm-1 are required to produce a 4.79 THz Ge/SiGe THz laser at 10 K and 300 K, respectively, for 2 mm long double metal waveguide quantum cascade lasers with facet coatings.

Ridge width effect on comb operation in terahertz quantum cascade lasers

We systematically investigate the laser ridge width effect on comb operation of single plasmon waveguide quantum cascade lasers emitting around 4.2 THz. The total group velocity dispersion (GVD), including the gain, waveguide, and material dispersions, is numerically evaluated for 6-mm long lasers with ridge widths varying from 100 to 200 μm. The simulation reveals that although calculated waveguide GVDs of lasers with different ridge widths are almost identical, the clamped gain dispersion partially determined by the frequency-dependent waveguide loss strongly contributes to the total GVD. From the simulation, we find that the laser with a 150-μm-wide ridge shows the flattest total GVD in the lasing range between 4.05 and 4.35 THz. The optimal ridge width of 150 μm for comb operation is also experimentally verified by intermode beat note and on-chip dual-comb measurements.

Chirped coupled ridge waveguide quantum cascade laser arrays with stable single-lobe far-field patterns

Power scaling in a broad area quantum cascade laser (QCL) tends to deteriorate beam quality with the emission of a multiple-lobe far-field pattern. In this paper, we demonstrate a coupled ridge waveguide QCL array consisting of five elements with chirped geometry. In-phase mode operation is secured by managing supermode loss with properly designed geometries of ridges. A single-lobe lateral far-field with a near diffraction limited beam pattern was obtained in the whole current dynamic range. The devices were fabricated with the wet and dry etching method. The regrowth technique of the InP:Fe insulation layer and InP:Si waveguide layer was employed. Such a structure has the potential to optimize the beam quality of the recently reported high-power broad-area QCL with a reduced cascade number.

2D patch antenna array on a double metal quantum cascade laser with >90% coupling to a Gaussian beam and selectable facet transparency at 1.9 THz.

2×2 parallel fed and 3×3 serial fed patch antenna arrays on a benzocyclobutene (BCB) polymer layer are integrated with a 70 μm wide, dry etched, double metal waveguide quantum cascade laser, operating at about 1.9 THz. The BCB surrounds the quantum cascade laser ridge and is planarized to fit precisely its height. The patch antenna arrays emit a linearly polarized, highly symmetric beam perpendicular to the antenna plane. The beams have a FWHM angle of 49° (2×2) and 35° (3×3). Both measurements and simulations indicate coupling factors to a Gaussian beam of over 90%. The antenna design is strongly governed by the high thickness (h=13.6 μm) and the low dielectric constant (ϵr=2.45) of the BCB substrate. Because the patch array has a very low input reflectivity of -13 to -20 dB over the 1.7-2.1 THz operation band, the laser needs a partially transmitting reflector to maintain the Q-factor of the active medium resonator to assure lasing in the antennas operation band. By changing the dimensions of the reflector, the facet transparency can be designed in a wide range from fully transmissive to highly reflective.

Broadly continuously tunable slot waveguide quantum cascade lasers based on a continuum-to-continuum active region design

We report our progress in the development of broadly tunable single-mode slot waveguide quantum cascade lasers based on a continuum-to-continuum active region design. The electroluminescence spectrum of the continuum-to-continuum active region design has a full width at half maximum of 440 cm−1 at center wavelength ∼10 μm at room temperature (300 K). Devices using the optimized slot waveguide structure and the continuum-to-continuum design can be tuned continuously with a lasing emission over 42 cm−1, from 9.74 to 10.16 μm, at room temperature by using only current tuning scheme, together with a side mode suppression ratio of above 15 dB within the whole tuning range.

Coupled ridge waveguide distributed feedback quantum cascade laser arrays

A coupled ridge waveguide quantum cascade laser (QCL) array consisting of fifteen elements with parallel integration was presented. In-phase fundamental mode operation in each element is secured by both the index-guided nature of the ridge and delicate loss management by properly designed geometries of the ridges and interspaces. Single-lobe lateral far-field with a nearly diffraction limited beam pattern was obtained. By incorporating a one-dimensional buried distributed feedback grating, the in-phase-operating coupled ridge waveguide QCL design provides an efficient solution to obtaining high output power and stable single longitudinal mode emission. The simplicity of this structure and fabrication process makes this approach attractive to many practical applications.

Zigzag modes in quantum cascade laser emission spectra

We present emission spectra obtained from ridge waveguide quantum cascade (QC) lasers with atypical periodic features that result from optical modes that suffer total internal sidewall reflections and traverse zigzag paths along the length of the waveguide structure. These “zigzag” modes are equally spaced, in frequency, about the single lasing mode that arises at threshold. Moreover, they only exist at relatively low injection currents and with increasing current yield to the broadband Fabry–Perot modes that typically comprise the complicated spectra of QC lasers. A straightforward geometric analysis shows a clear correspondence between the zigzag modes and parameters useful for characterizing the quality of the laser waveguide structure.

GaN/AlGaN waveguide quantum cascade photodetectors at λ ≈ 1.55 μm with enhanced responsivity and ∼40 GHz frequency bandwidth

We report on ultrafast GaN/AlGaN waveguide quantum cascade detectors with a peak detection wavelength of 1.5 μm. Mesa devices with a size of 7 × 7 and 10 × 10 μm2 have been fabricated with radio-frequency impedance-matched access lines. A strong enhancement of the responsivity is reported by illuminating the waveguide facet, with respect to illumination of the top surface. The room temperature responsivity is estimated to be higher than 9.5 ± 2 and 7.8 ± 2 mA/W, while the −3dB frequency response is extracted to be 42 and 37.4 GHz for 7 × 7 and 10 × 10 μm2 devices, respectively.

Phase-locking of a 2.7-THz quantum cascade laser to a mode-locked erbium-doped fibre laser

We demonstrate phase-locking of a 2.7-THz metalmetal waveguide quantum cascade laser (QCL) to an external microwave signal. The reference is the 15th harmonic, generated by a semiconductor superlattice nonlinear device, of a signal at 182 GHz, which itself is generated by a multiplier-chain (x2x3x2) from a microwave synthesizer at 15 GHz. Both laser and reference radiations are coupled into a hot electron bolometer mixer, resulting in a beat signal, which is fed into a phase-lock loop. Spectral analysis of the beat signal (see fig. 1) confirms that the QCL is phase locked. This result opens the possibility to extend heterodyne interferometers into the far-infrared range.

Low-divergence single-mode terahertz quantum cascade laser

The operation of quantum cascade lasers has to date been demonstrated over a broad frequency range in the terahertz spectrum (from 4.4 THz to 1.2 THz)1,2,3. Most potential applications of terahertz quantum cascade lasers require a source that has an excellent spatial and spectral control of the radiated emission4,5,6,7. Here, we present a distributed feedback design of a double-metal waveguide quantum cascade laser8,9,10 that features a grating resonant with the third-order Bragg condition. We show that an improvement of the extraction efficiency results in control of the laser emission wavelength and enhanced output power. Moreover, the grating can act as an array of phased linear sources, reshaping the typical wide and patterned far-field of double-metal waveguides into a narrow beam of ∼10° divergence. A terahertz quantum cascade laser that uses a grating etched into a double-metal waveguide to greatly improve the laser's performance is reported. The grating enhances the laser's optical power extraction and provides control over its emission wavelength and beam quality, yielding a single-mode beam that has a divergence of less than 10 degrees in both axes and a power of up to 15 mW.

Phase locking of a 27 THz quantum cascade laser to a microwave reference

We demonstrate the phase locking of a 2.7 THz metal-metal waveguide quantum cascade laser (QCL) to an external microwave signal. The reference is the 15th harmonic, generated by a semiconductor superlattice nonlinear device, of a signal at 182 GHz, which itself is generated by a multiplier chain (x12) from a microwave synthesizer at approximately 15 GHz. Both laser and reference radiations are coupled into a bolometer mixer, resulting in a beat signal, which is fed into a phase-lock loop. The spectral analysis of the beat signal confirms that the QCL is phase locked. This result opens the possibility to extend heterodyne interferometers into the far-infrared range.

Single mode emitting ridge waveguide quantum cascade lasers coupled to an active ring resonator filter

Quantum cascade ridge waveguide lasers with coupled ring resonators have been fabricated. Coupling of an actively pumped microring resonator to a ridge waveguide device allows for filtering the numerous Fabry–Pérot modes emerging in the ridge waveguide. Due to the large free spectral range of the ring resonators mode selection is accomplished, resulting in stable single mode emission for an optimized design. Thus, side mode suppression ratios of up to 26 dB over a temperature range of 140 K are attained by on-chip coupling of a ridge waveguide device with a microsquare ring resonator. The tuning rate of the microring resonator laser is 0.40 nm/K. Output powers of several milliwatts are obtained.

Hollow waveguide quantum cascade laser spectrometer as an online microliter sensor for gas chromatography

An optical absorption sensor for gas chromatography (GC) is presented. It consists of a quantum cascade laser along with a long piece of Hollow Waveguide for Infrared (HWIR) transmission inserted into the GC line. It measures the infrared absorption in each individual gas peak after separation by the GC column, and maintains the shapes of gas peaks after the HWIR sensor, making the gas samples further available for other sensors. By adding an inline combustion module before the HWIR sensor, the concentrations of many carbon containing compounds can be acquired by measuring CO 2 absorption in their peaks. The HWIR sensor detects isotopologues of CO 2 separately, and therefore can be used to measure carbon isotope ratios of heavy compounds. Application of the HWIR sensor to the detection of 13CO 2 and CDH 3 is described.

Surface plasmon quantum cascade lasers as terahertz local oscillators

We characterize a heterodyne receiver based on a surface-plasmon waveguide quantum cascade laser (QCL) emitting at 2.84 THz as a local oscillator, and an NbN hot electron bolometer as a mixer. We find that the envelope of the far-field pattern of the QCL is diffraction-limited and superimposed onto interference fringes, which are similar to those found in narrow double-metal waveguide QCLs. Compared to the latter, a more directional beam allows for better coupling of the radiation power to the mixer. We obtain a receiver noise temperature of 1050 K when the mixer is at 2 K, which, to our knowledge, is the highest sensitivity reported at frequencies beyond 2.5 THz.

High-power and high-temperature THz quantum-cascade lasers based on lens-coupled metal-metal waveguides

A metal-metal waveguide quantum cascade laser with an abutted silicon hyperhemispherical lens is demonstrated at ~4.1 THz. The device produced 145 mW of peak pulsed power at 5 K with a wall-plug power efficiency of 0.7%, lasing up to a maximum operating temperature of 160 K. The far-field beam pattern has a full width at half-maximum value of ~4.8 degrees in the H plane. The same device produced ~26 mW of peak power using a Winston cone instead of a lens, lasing up to 165 K. The large increase in output power is mainly attributed to an increase in collection efficiency.