A broadly tunable THz nonlinear QCLs with enhanced conversion efficiency by employing a homogeneous active region is demonstrated. Using an external cavity configuration, the device has achieved tunability from 1.2 THz to 4.5 THz in the operating frequency range. The single dual-upper-state structure with wide gain bandwidth and a high nonlinear susceptibility χ2 enables to realize two-wavelength oscillations without stacking active regions and significantly improves the mid-infrared to THz conversion efficiency, resulting in superior performance over previously reported frequency tunable devices. The device has achieved a conversion efficiency of ~3 mW/W2 around 3.5 THz. In the presentation, spectroscopic measurements using this device will also be reported.
We present a tunable nonlinear QCL structure that uses an external-cavity lens-coupled Cherenkov waveguide, where a silicon lens is closely coupled to the device substrate to provide greatly enhanced THz coupling efficiency and considerable performance enhancements over existing devices. A source operating at room temperature outputs a peak power of 0.2 mW at 1.5 THz. Additionally, device tuning over an operating frequency range from 420 GHz up to 2 THz was demonstrated. The operating frequency of 420 GHz is the lowest reported operating frequency for room-temperature QCL sources.
Terahertz quantum cascade laser sources with intra-cavity difference frequency generation are currently the only electrically-pumped monolithic semiconductor light sources operating at room temperature in the 1-6 THz spectral range. These devices demonstrated drastic improvements in performance in the past several years and can produce broadband and narrow-linewidth single-mode terahertz emission with power output sufficient for spectroscopic applications. Recent efforts in the wavefunction engineering using an active region design based on a dual-upper-state concept led to a significant enhancement of the optical nonlinearity of the active region for efficient terahertz generation. Dual-upper-state terahertz quantum cascade laser sources exhibit the power of >0.3 mW. Here, we report low frequency generation from terahertz quantum cascade laser sources based on intra-cavity nonlinear frequency mixing. In order to achieve higher nonlinear susceptibility in low frequency region, we design a long wavelength dual-upper-state active region in which transition dipole moments are increased. A fabricated device with distributed feedback grating demonstrates a THz peak output power of 40 μW at room temperature, with multi-mode THz emission at a frequency of 1.4 THz. Besides, a device produces THz output power of >250 μW at 110 K, which is higher output power, compared to low- frequency THz-QCLs at liquid helium temperature.
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