Graphene‐Coupled Terahertz Semiconductor Lasers for Enhanced Passive Frequency Comb Operation

Abstract

Abstract Optical frequency combs, consisting of well‐controlled equidistant frequency lines, have been widely used in precision spectroscopy and metrology. Terahertz combs have been realized in quantum cascade lasers (QCLs) by employing either an active mode‐locking or phase seeding technique, or a dispersion compensator mirror. However, it remains a challenge to achieve the passive comb formation in terahertz semiconductor lasers due to the insufficient nonlinearities of conventional saturable absorbers. Here, a passive terahertz frequency comb is demonstrated by coupling a multilayer graphene sample into a QCL compound cavity. The terahertz modes are self‐stabilized with intermode beat note linewidths down to a record of 700 Hz and the comb operation of graphene‐coupled QCLs is validated by on‐chip dual‐comb measurements. Furthermore, the optical pulse emitted from the graphene‐coupled QCL is directly measured employing a terahertz pump–probe technique. The enhanced passive frequency comb operation is attributed to the saturable absorption behavior of the graphene‐integrated saturable absorber mirror, as well as the dispersion compensation introduced by the graphene sample. The results provide a conceptually different graphene‐based approach for passive comb formation in terahertz QCLs, opening up intriguing opportunities for fast and high‐precision terahertz spectroscopy and nonlinear photonics.

Keywords

• frequency combs
• on‐chip dual‐combs
• pulse generation
• terahertz lasers