High performance 4.7 THz GaAs quantum cascade lasers based on four quantum wells

• Published in: New journal of physics Vol. 18; no. 12; pp. 123004 - 123011
• Main Authors: Ohtani, Keita, Tur inková, Dana, Bonzon, Christopher, Benea-Chelmus, Ileana-Cristina, Beck, Mattias, Faist, Jérôme, Justen, Matthias, Graf, Urs U, Mertens, Marc, Stutzki, Jürgen
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Bristol IOP Publishing 02-12-2016
• Subjects: Astronomy; Continuous radiation; Distributed feedback lasers; Far fields; GaAs/AlGaAs; Gallium arsenide; Laser beams; Physics; quantum cascade laser; Quantum cascade lasers; Quantum wells; Spectrometers; THz
• ISSN: 1367-2630; 1367-2630
• DOI: 10.1088/1367-2630/18/12/123004

GaAs/AlGaAs quantum cascade lasers based on four quantum well structures operating at 4.7 THz are reported. A large current density dynamic range is observed, leading to a maximum operation temperature of 150 K for the double metal waveguide device and a high peak output power more than 200 mW for the single surface plasmon waveguide device. A continuous wave, single mode, third order distributed feedback laser with a low electrical power dissipation and a narrow far-field beam pattern, which is required for a local oscillator in astronomy heterodyne spectrometers, is also demonstrated.