Two-well terahertz quantum cascade lasers with suppressed carrier leakage
© 2017 Author(s). The mechanisms that limit the temperature performance of diagonal GaAs/Al0.15GaAs0.85-based terahertz quantum cascade lasers (THz-QCLs) have been identified as thermally activated leakage of charge carriers through excited states into the continuum. THz-QCLs with energetically high...
| Main Authors: | , , , |
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
| Published: |
AIP Publishing
2021
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| Online Access: | https://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/134844 |
| _version_ | 1811090919423737856 |
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| author | Albo, Asaf Flores, Yuri V Hu, Qing Reno, John L |
| author2 | Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science |
| author_facet | Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science Albo, Asaf Flores, Yuri V Hu, Qing Reno, John L |
| author_sort | Albo, Asaf |
| collection | MIT |
| description | © 2017 Author(s). The mechanisms that limit the temperature performance of diagonal GaAs/Al0.15GaAs0.85-based terahertz quantum cascade lasers (THz-QCLs) have been identified as thermally activated leakage of charge carriers through excited states into the continuum. THz-QCLs with energetically higher-laying excited states supported by sufficiently high barriers aim to eliminate these leakage mechanisms and lead to improved temperature performance. Although suppression of thermally activated carrier leakage was realized in a three-well THz-QCL based on a resonant-phonon scheme, no improvement in the temperature performance was reported thus far. Here, we report a major improvement in the temperature performance of a two-quantum-well direct-phonon THz-QCL structure. We show that the improved laser performance is due to the suppression of the thermally activated carrier leakage into the continuum with the increase in the injection barrier height. Moreover, we demonstrate that high-barrier two-well structures can support a clean three-level laser system at elevated temperatures, which opens the opportunity to achieve temperature performance beyond the state-of-the-art. |
| first_indexed | 2024-09-23T14:54:03Z |
| format | Article |
| id | mit-1721.1/134844 |
| institution | Massachusetts Institute of Technology |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2024-09-23T14:54:03Z |
| publishDate | 2021 |
| publisher | AIP Publishing |
| record_format | dspace |
| spelling | mit-1721.1/1348442023-02-17T21:06:22Z Two-well terahertz quantum cascade lasers with suppressed carrier leakage Albo, Asaf Flores, Yuri V Hu, Qing Reno, John L Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Research Laboratory of Electronics © 2017 Author(s). The mechanisms that limit the temperature performance of diagonal GaAs/Al0.15GaAs0.85-based terahertz quantum cascade lasers (THz-QCLs) have been identified as thermally activated leakage of charge carriers through excited states into the continuum. THz-QCLs with energetically higher-laying excited states supported by sufficiently high barriers aim to eliminate these leakage mechanisms and lead to improved temperature performance. Although suppression of thermally activated carrier leakage was realized in a three-well THz-QCL based on a resonant-phonon scheme, no improvement in the temperature performance was reported thus far. Here, we report a major improvement in the temperature performance of a two-quantum-well direct-phonon THz-QCL structure. We show that the improved laser performance is due to the suppression of the thermally activated carrier leakage into the continuum with the increase in the injection barrier height. Moreover, we demonstrate that high-barrier two-well structures can support a clean three-level laser system at elevated temperatures, which opens the opportunity to achieve temperature performance beyond the state-of-the-art. 2021-10-27T20:09:27Z 2021-10-27T20:09:27Z 2017 2019-06-05T18:17:23Z Article http://purl.org/eprint/type/JournalArticle https://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/134844 en 10.1063/1.4996567 Applied Physics Letters Article is made available in accordance with the publisher's policy and may be subject to US copyright law. Please refer to the publisher's site for terms of use. application/pdf AIP Publishing Other repository |
| spellingShingle | Albo, Asaf Flores, Yuri V Hu, Qing Reno, John L Two-well terahertz quantum cascade lasers with suppressed carrier leakage |
| title | Two-well terahertz quantum cascade lasers with suppressed carrier leakage |
| title_full | Two-well terahertz quantum cascade lasers with suppressed carrier leakage |
| title_fullStr | Two-well terahertz quantum cascade lasers with suppressed carrier leakage |
| title_full_unstemmed | Two-well terahertz quantum cascade lasers with suppressed carrier leakage |
| title_short | Two-well terahertz quantum cascade lasers with suppressed carrier leakage |
| title_sort | two well terahertz quantum cascade lasers with suppressed carrier leakage |
| url | https://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/134844 |
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