Effects of elastic scattering on high-performance step-taper active-region quantum cascade lasers

Colin Boyle; Kevin M. Oresick; Jeremy D. Kirch; Luke J. Mawst; Don F. Lindberg III; Thomas L. Earles; Yuri V. Flores; Dan Botez

doi:10.1117/12.2510386

1 March 2019 Effects of elastic scattering on high-performance step-taper active-region quantum cascade lasers

Colin Boyle, Kevin M. Oresick, Jeremy D. Kirch, Luke J. Mawst, Don F. Lindberg III, Thomas L. Earles, Yuri V. Flores, Dan Botez

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Proceedings Volume 10939, Novel In-Plane Semiconductor Lasers XVIII; 109391L (2019) https://doi.org/10.1117/12.2510386
Event: SPIE OPTO, 2019, San Francisco, California, United States

Abstract

Step-taper active-region (STA) quantum cascade lasers (QCLs) allow for both carrier-leakage suppression and ultrafast, miniband-like carrier extraction. In turn, that has led to very high internal-efficiency n_i values: ~ 77 % and 80-86 % from ~ 5.0 μm- and 8-9 μm-emitting QCLs, respectively. Based on extracted parameters that characterize the interfaceroughness (IFR) scattering, a study has been performed of the effects of elastic scattering, both IFR and alloy-disorder (AD) scattering, on 5.0 μm-emitting STA-QCLs. We find that the laser-transition efficiency n_tr is enhanced by ~15 % (i.e., from 83 % to ~ 95 %) due to the much stronger effect of elastic scattering on the lower-laser-level lifetime than on the effective upper-laser-level lifetime. In turn, the injection efficiency: n_inj = n_i /n_tr , reaches ~ 81 %; that is, the highest injection-efficiency value obtained to date from QCLs. Furthermore, we find that the projected upper limit for the pulsed wall-plug efficiency can reach values as high as 44.4 % for 4.6 μm-emitting devices; thus, raising the possibility of CW operation of 4.5-5.0 μm-emitting QCLs with wallplug-efficiency values as high as 40 %.

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Colin Boyle, Kevin M. Oresick, Jeremy D. Kirch, Luke J. Mawst, Don F. Lindberg III, Thomas L. Earles, Yuri V. Flores, and Dan Botez "Effects of elastic scattering on high-performance step-taper active-region quantum cascade lasers", Proc. SPIE 10939, Novel In-Plane Semiconductor Lasers XVIII, 109391L (1 March 2019); https://doi.org/10.1117/12.2510386

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