English

Quantum Cascade Surface Emitting Lasers

Optics 2024-10-28 v1 Applied Physics

Abstract

A low-cost single frequency laser emitting in the mid-infrared spectral region and dissipating minimal electrical power is a key ingredient for the next generation of portable gas sensors for high-volume applications involving chemical sensing of important greenhouse and pollutant gases. We propose here a Quantum Cascade Surface Emitting Laser (QCSEL), which we implement as a short linear cavity with high reflectivity coated end-mirrors to suppress any edge emission and use a buried semiconductor diffraction grating to extract the light from the surface. By wafer-level testing we investigate the cavity length scaling, extract mirror reflectivities larger than 0.9, and achieve a pulsed threshold power dissipation of 237 mW for an emission wavelength near 7.5 μ\mum. Finally, we demonstrate single mode emission with a side-mode suppression ratio larger than 33 dB of a 248 μ\mum short cavity mounted with the epitaxial layer up and operated in continuous wave at 20 ^\circC.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.2308.05683,
  title  = {Quantum Cascade Surface Emitting Lasers},
  author = {David Stark and Filippos Kapsalidis and Sergej Markmann and Mathieu Bertrand and Bahareh Marzban and Emilio Gini and Mattias Beck and Jérôme Faist},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2308.05683},
  year   = {2024}
}
R2 v1 2026-06-28T11:52:58.631Z