Using the recently proposed shallow-well design, we demonstrate InP based quantum cascade lasers (QCLs) emitting around 4.9 μm with 27% and 21% wall plug efficiencies in room temperature (298 K) pulsed and continuous wave (cw) operations, respectively. The laser core consists of 40 QCL-stages. The highest cw efficiency is obtained from a buried-ridge device with a ridge width of 8 μm and a cavity length of 5 mm. The front and back facets are antireflection and high-reflection coated, respectively. The maximum single facet cw power at room temperature amounts to 5.1 W.

The quantum cascade laser (QCL) is an important laser source in the mid-infrared and terahertz frequency range. The past twenty years have witnessed its tremendous development in power, wall plug efficiency, frequency coverage and tunability, beam quality, as well as various applications based on QCL technology. Nowadays, QCLs can deliver high continuous wave power output up to 5.1 W at room temperature, and cover a wide frequency range from 3 to 300 μm by simply varying the material components. Broadband heterogeneous QCLs with a broad spectral range from 3 to 12 μm, wavelength agile QCLs based on monolithic sampled grating design, and on-chip beam QCL combiner are being developed for the next generation tunable mid-infrared source for spectroscopy and sensing. Terahertz sources based on nonlinear generation in QCLs further extend the accessible wavelength into the terahertz range. Room temperature continuous wave operation, high terahertz power up to 1.9 mW, and wide frequency tunability form 1 to 5 THz makes this type of device suitable for many applications in terahertz spectroscopy, imaging, and communication.

We demonstrate room temperature continuous wave THz sources based on intracavity difference-frequency generation from mid-infrared quantum cascade lasers. Buried ridge, buried composite distributed-feedback waveguide with Čerenkov phase-matching scheme is used to reduce the waveguide loss and enhance the heat dissipation for continuous wave operation. Continuous emission at 3.6 THz with a side-mode suppression ratio of 20 dB and output power up to 3 μW are achieved, respectively. THz peak power is further scaled up to 1.4 mW in pulsed mode by increasing the mid-infrared power through increasing the active region doping and device area.

We demonstrate high power continuous-wave room-temperature operation surface-grating distributed feedback quantum cascade lasers at 4.8 μm. High power single mode operation benefits from a combination of high-reflection and antireflection coatings. Maximum single-facet continuous-wave output power of 2.4 W and peak wall plug efficiency of 10% from one facet is obtained at 298 K. Single mode operation with a side mode suppression ratio of 30 dB and single-lobed far field without beam steering is observed.

We demonstrate room temperature single-mode THz emission at 4 THz based on intracavity difference-frequency generation from mid-infrared dual-wavelength quantum cascade lasers. An integrated dual-period distributed feedback grating is defined on the cap layer to purify both mid-infrared pumping wavelengths and in turn the THz spectra. Single mode operation of the pumping wavelengths results in a single-mode THz operation with a narrow linewidth of 6.6 GHz. A maximum THz power of 8.5 μW with a power conversion efficiency of 10 μW/W2 is obtained at room temperature.

We demonstrate quantum cascade lasers emitting at wavelengths of 3–3.2 μm in the InP-based material system. The laser core consists of GaInAs/AlInAs using strain balancing technique. In room temperature pulsed mode operation, threshold current densities of 1.66 kA/cm2 and 1.97 kA/cm2, and characteristic temperatures (T0) of 108 K and 102 K, are obtained for the devices emitting at 3.2 μm and 3 μm, respectively. Room temperature continuous wave operation is achieved at both wavelengths.

A dual-section, single-mode quantum cascade laser is demonstrated in continuous wave at room temperature with up to 114 nm (50 cm−1) of tuning near a wavelength of 4.8 μm. Power above 100 mW is demonstrated, with a mean side mode suppression ratio of 24 dB. By changing the grating period, 270 nm (120 cm−1) of gap-free electrical tuning for a single gain medium has been realized.

Articles you may be interested inHigh power operation of λ5.2-11μm strain balanced quantum cascade lasers based on the same material composition Appl. Phys. Lett. 105, 071106 (2014); 10.1063/1.4893746 Watt level performance of quantum cascade lasers in room temperature continuous wave operation at λ 3.76 μ m Appl. Phys. Lett. 97, 131117 (2010); 10.1063/1.3496489 3 W continuous-wave room temperature single-facet emission from quantum cascade lasers based on nonresonant extraction design approach Appl. Phys. Lett. 95, 141113 (2009); 10.1063/1.3238263Above room-temperature operation of In As ∕ Al Ga Sb superlattice quantum cascade lasers emitting at 12 μ m Appl.An InP based quantum cascade laser ͑QCL͒ heterostructure emitting around 5 m is grown with gas-source molecular beam epitaxy. The QCL core design takes a shallow-well approach to maximize the characteristic temperatures, T 0 and T 1 , for operations above room temperature. A T 0 value of 383 K and a T 1 value of 645 K are obtained within a temperature range of 298-373 K. In room temperature continuous wave operation, this design gives a single facet output power of 3 W and a wall plug efficiency of 16% from a device with a cavity length of 5 mm and a ridge width of 8 m.