A hybrid plasmonic waveguide terahertz quantum cascade laser

作者：Degl'Innocenti Riccardo^*; Shah Yash D; Wallis Robert; Klimont Adam; Ren Yuan; Jessop David S; Beere Harvey E; Ritchie David A

来源：Applied Physics Letters, 2015, 106(8): 082101.

DOI：10.1063/1.4913307

We present the realization of a quantum cascade laser emitting at around 2.85 THz, based on a hybrid plasmonic waveguide with a low refractive index dielectric cladding. This hybrid waveguide design allows the performance of a double-metal waveguide to be retained, while improving the emission far-field. A set of lasers based on the same active region material were fabricated with different metal layer thicknesses. A detailed characterization of the performance of these lasers revealed that there is an optimal trade-off that yields the best far-field emission and the maximum temperature of operation. By exploiting the pure plasmonic mode of these waveguides, the standard operation conditions of a double-metal quantum cascade laser were retrieved, such that the maximum operating temperature of these devices is not affected by the process. These results pave the way to realizing a class of integrated devices working in the terahertz range which could be further exploited to fabricate terahertz on-chip circuitry.

• 出版日期2015-2-23