Work

Phase-locked terahertz plasmonic laser array with 2 W output power in a single spectral mode

Year: 2020

Type: article

Abstract: Plasmonic lasers suffer from low output power and divergent beams due to their subwavelength metallic cavities. We developed a phase-locking scheme for such lasers to significantly enhance their radiative efficiency and beam quality. An array of metallic microcavities is longitudinally coupled through traveling plasmon waves, which leads to radiation in a single spectral mode and a diffraction limited single-lobed beam in the surface normal direction. We implemented our scheme for terahertz plasmonic quantum-cascade lasers (QCLs) and measured peak output power in excess of 2 W for a single-mode 3.3 T H z QCL radiating in a narrow single-lobed beam, when operated at 58 K in a compact Stirling cooler. We thereby demonstrated an order of magnitude increase in power and thirty-times higher average intensity for monolithic single-mode terahertz QCLs compared to prior work. The number of photons radiated from the cavity outnumber those absorbed within its claddings and semiconductor medium, which constitutes > 50 % radiative efficiency and is significantly greater than that achieved for previous single-mode mid-infrared or terahertz QCLs.

Source: Optica

DOI: 10.1364/optica.390852

Authors: Yuan Jin, John L. Reno, Sushil Kumar

Institutions: Lehigh University, Sandia National Laboratories, Center for Integrated Nanotechnologies

Language: English

Topic: Plasmonic and Surface Plasmon Research

Subfield: Biomedical Engineering

Field: Engineering

Domain: Physical Sciences

Open Access status: gold

Estimated APC paid: $3,208

Funder: National Science Foundation