Using photonic crystals to create a quantum cascade lasers at terahertz wavelengths

To our knowledge, there has been no demonstration of photonic crystals based semiconductor lasers used in-plane with light at these far infrared wavelengths (~100 mum). In this paper we present a quantum cascade laser that uses photonic crystals as reflectors all on the same chip. In this paper we will explain in detail the fabrication technology necessary to obtain an electrically pumped, single chip, quantum cascade photonic crystal laser at these terahertz frequencies. We will also present optical characterisation measurements of the far infrared quantum cascade photonic crystal lasers