Thermoelectric-cooled terahertz quantum cascade lasers

Abstract

Journal © 2019 We demonstrate the first lasing emission of a thermo-electrically cooled terahertz quantum cascade laser (THz QCL). A high temperature three-well THz QCL emitting at 3.8 THz is mounted to a novel five-stage thermoelectric cooler reaching a temperature difference of ∆T = 124 K. The temperature and time-dependent laser performance is investigated and shows a peak pulse power of 4.4 mW and a peak average output power of 100 µW for steady-state operation.