Terahertz quantum cascade laser with non-resonant extraction

Abstract

In order to improve the maximum operating temperature of THz quantum cascade lasers (QCLs) we propose to modify the three well resonant phonon design by increasing the energy of the separation between the bottom transition levels and the ground states, which is usually adjusted to the LO-phonon energy in GaAs. The fabricated devices based on this design with non-resonant depopulation of the bottom transition level operated in pulsed mode up to 190K, which is the best-reported performance for THz QCLs with Al0.15Ga0.85As barriers based on an Au-Au double-metal waveguide. The performed analysis showed that the achieved improvement could be explained by the proposed design modification.