Terahertz quantum cascade lasers

The development of the terahertz frequency range has long been impeded by the relative dearth of compact, coherent radiation sources of reasonable power. This thesis details the development of quantum cascade lasers (QCLs) that operate in the terahertz with photon energies below the semiconductor Reststrahlen band. Photons are emitted via electronic intersubband transitions that take place entirely within the conduction band, where the wavelength is chosen by engineering the well and barrier widths in multiple-quantum-well heterostructures. Fabrication of such long wavelength lasers has traditionally been challenging, since it is difficult to obtain a population inversion between such closely spaced energy levels, and because traditional dielectric waveguides become extremely lossy due to free carrier absorption. This thesis reports the development of terahertz QCLs in which the lower radiative state is depopulated via resonant longitudinal-optical phonon scattering. This mechanism is efficient and temperature insensitive, and provides protection from thermal backfilling due to the large energy separation between the lower radiative state and the injector. Both properties are important in allowing higher temperature operation at longer wavelengths. Lasers using a surface plasmon based waveguide grown on a semi-insulating (SI) GaAs substrate were demonstrated at 3.4 THz in pulsed mode up to 87 K, with peak collected powers of 14 mW at 5 K, and 4 mW at 77 K.

Department dc:contributor.department

Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Dept. of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science.

Grantor dc:publisher

Massachusetts Institute of Technology

Year dc:date.issued

2003

Author dc:creator

• Williams, Benjamin S. (Benjamin Stanford), 1974-

Advisor dc:contributor.advisor

• Qing Hu.

• Electrical Engineering and Computer Science.

Statement dc:rights

• M.I.T. theses are protected by copyright. They may be viewed from this source for any purpose, but reproduction or distribution in any format is prohibited without written permission. See provided URL for inquiries about permission.

Licence dc:rights.uri

• http://dspace.mit.edu/handle/1721.1/7582

Language dc:language.iso

eng

Handle dc:identifier.uri

http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/17012

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:dspace.mit.edu:1721.1/17012