Optically pumped submillimeter wave semiconductor lasers

Author

Lau, Kei May ; Xu, Wei

Author_Institution

Dept. of Electr. & Comput. Eng., Massachusetts Univ., Amherst, MA, USA

Volume

28

Issue

8

fYear

1992

fDate

8/1/1992 12:00:00 AM

Firstpage

1773

Lastpage

1777

Abstract

An optically pumped multiple quantum well (MQW) submillimeter wave (SMMW) laser is proposed and designed. The laser can potentially generate significant power in the far-infrared regime. It is based on pumping of a series of InGaAs-GaAs quantum wells with a CO₂ laser. The excited electrons created by the pumping process tunnel into the upper of two subband states in an AlGaAs-GaAs quantum well grown in series with the absorption wells, and thereby give rise to a population inversion between these two states which are tuned to the SMMW frequency desired. The authors present the key concepts of the new device and some designed device structures

Keywords

III-V semiconductors; gallium arsenide; indium compounds; optical pumping; population inversion; semiconductor junction lasers; submillimetre wave devices; CO₂ laser; FIR; InGaAs-GaAs; MQW; absorption wells; device structures; electron tunnelling; excited electrons; far-infrared regime; optically pumped multiple quantum well; population inversion; pumping process; semiconductors; subband states; submillimeter wave semiconductor lasers; Electron optics; Laser excitation; Optical design; Optical pumping; Power generation; Power lasers; Pump lasers; Quantum well devices; Quantum well lasers; Semiconductor lasers;

fLanguage

English

Journal_Title

Quantum Electronics, IEEE Journal of

Publisher

ieee

ISSN

0018-9197

Type

jour

DOI

10.1109/3.142574

Filename

142574