Low Power Consumption Substrate-Emitting DFB Quantum Cascade Lasers

Chuan-Wei Liu; Jin-Chuan Zhang; Zhi-Wei Jia; Ning Zhuo; Shen-Qiang Zhai; Li-Jun Wang; Jun-Qi Liu; Shu-Man Liu; Feng-Qi Liu; Zhan-Guo Wang

doi:10.1186/s11671-017-2281-8

Low Power Consumption Substrate-Emitting DFB Quantum Cascade Lasers

Nanoscale Res Lett. 2017 Sep 2;12(1):517. doi: 10.1186/s11671-017-2281-8.

Authors

Chuan-Wei Liu^{1

2}, Jin-Chuan Zhang³, Zhi-Wei Jia^{1

2}, Ning Zhuo¹, Shen-Qiang Zhai¹, Li-Jun Wang^{1

2}, Jun-Qi Liu^{1

2}, Shu-Man Liu^{1

2}, Feng-Qi Liu^{1

2}, Zhan-Guo Wang^{1

2}

Affiliations

¹ Key Laboratory of Semiconductor Materials Science, Institute of Semiconductors, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing Key Laboratory of Low Dimensional Semiconductor Materials and Devices, Beijing, 100083, People's Republic of China.
² College of Materials Science and Opto-Electronic Technology, University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, 101408, People's Republic of China.
³ Key Laboratory of Semiconductor Materials Science, Institute of Semiconductors, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing Key Laboratory of Low Dimensional Semiconductor Materials and Devices, Beijing, 100083, People's Republic of China. [email protected].

Abstract

In the present work, an ultra-low power consumption substrate-emitting distributed feedback (DFB) quantum cascade laser (QCL) was developed. The continuous-wave (CW) threshold power dissipation is reduced to 0.43 W at 25 °C by shortening the cavity length to 0.5 mm and depositing high-reflectivity (HR) coating on both facets. As far as we know, this is the recorded threshold power dissipation of QCLs in the same conditions. Single-mode emission was achieved by employing a buried second-order grating. Mode-hop free emission can be observed within a wide temperature range from 15 to 105 °C in CW mode. The divergence angles are 22.5^o and 1.94^o in the ridge-width direction and cavity-length direction, respectively. The maximum optical power in CW operation was 2.4 mW at 25 °C, which is sufficient to spectroscopy applications.

Keywords: Low power consumption; Quantum cascade laser; Substrate-emitting.