Broadly tunable monolithic room-temperature terahertz quantum cascade laser sources

Abstract

Electrically pumped room-temperature semiconductor sources of tunable terahertz radiation in 1-5â €‰THz spectral range are highly desired to enable compact instrumentation for THz sensing and spectroscopy. Quantum cascade lasers with intra-cavity difference-frequency generation are currently the only room-temperature electrically pumped semiconductor sources that can operate in the entire 1-5â €‰THz spectral range. Here we demonstrate that this technology is suitable to implementing monolithic room-temperature terahertz tuners with broadband electrical control of the emission frequency. Experimentally, we demonstrate ridge waveguide devices electrically tunable between 3.44 and 4.02â €‰THz. © 2014 Macmillan Publishers Limited. All rights reserved.