Moreau, V. and Bahriz, M. and Colombelli, R. and Perahia, R. and Painter, O. and Wilson, L. R. and Krysa, A. B. (2007) Demonstration of air-guided quantum cascade lasers without top claddings. Optics Express, 15 (22). pp. 14861-14869. ISSN 1094-4087. https://resolver.caltech.edu/CaltechAUTHORS:MORoe07
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Abstract
We report on quantum cascade lasers employing waveguides based on a predominant air confinement mechanism in which the active region is located immediately at the device top surface. The lasers employ ridge-waveguide resonators with narrow lateral electrical contacts only, with a large, central top region not covered by metallization layers. Devices based on this principle have been reported in the past; however, they employed a thick, doped top-cladding layer in order to allow for uniform current injection. We find that the in-plane conductivity of the active region - when the material used is of high quality - provides adequate electrical injection. As a consequence, the devices demonstrated in this work are thinner, and most importantly they can simultaneously support air-guided and surface-plasmon waveguide modes. When the lateral contacts are narrow, the optical mode is mostly located below the air-semiconductor interface. The mode is predominantly air-guided and it leaks from the top surface into the surrounding environment, suggesting that these lasers could be employed for surface-sensing applications. These laser modes are found to operate up to room temperature under pulsed injection, with an emission spectrum centered around λ ≃ 7:66 μm.
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Additional Information: | © 2007 Optical Society of America. Received 10 July 2007; revised 21 August 2007; accepted 21 August 2007; published 26 October 2007. We thank C. Faugeras for help with the far-field measurements; F. Julien, C. Sirtori, O. Demichel for useful discussions, and J. Palomo for technical help. This work was conducted as part of a EURYI scheme award (www.esf.org/euryi). The Caltech portion of this work was supported by the DARPA Center for Optofluidics (http://www.optofluidics.caltech.edu). This work is supported by the UK Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC) and by the Royal Society. The device fabrication has been performed at the nano-center “Centrale Technologique Minerve” at the Institut d’Electronique Fondamentale. | ||||||||
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Subject Keywords: | semiconductor lasers; laser resonators, infrared lasers | ||||||||
Issue or Number: | 22 | ||||||||
Record Number: | CaltechAUTHORS:MORoe07 | ||||||||
Persistent URL: | https://resolver.caltech.edu/CaltechAUTHORS:MORoe07 | ||||||||
Official Citation: | V. Moreau, M. Bahriz, R. Colombelli, R. Perahia, O. Painter, L. R. Wilson, and A. B. Krysa, "Demonstration of air-guided quantum cascade lasers without top claddings," Opt. Express 15, 14861-14869 (2007) http://www.opticsinfobase.org/abstract.cfm?URI=oe-15-22-14861 | ||||||||
Usage Policy: | No commercial reproduction, distribution, display or performance rights in this work are provided. | ||||||||
ID Code: | 9440 | ||||||||
Collection: | CaltechAUTHORS | ||||||||
Deposited By: | Archive Administrator | ||||||||
Deposited On: | 02 Jan 2008 | ||||||||
Last Modified: | 03 Oct 2019 00:00 |
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