Planarized THz quantum cascade lasers for broadband coherent photonics

Urban Senica; Andres Forrer; Tudor Olariu; Paolo Micheletti; Sara Cibella; Guido Torrioli; Mattias Beck; Jérôme Faist; Giacomo Scalari

doi:10.1038/s41377-022-01058-2

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Planarized THz quantum cascade lasers for broadband coherent photonics

Original Articles

- Planarized THz quantum cascade lasers for broadband coherent photonics
- Light: Science & Applications Vol. 11, Issue 12, Pages: 3098-3108(2022)
- Affiliations：
  
  1.Quantum Optoelectronics Group, Institute of Quantum Electronics, ETH Zürich, 8093, Zürich, Switzerland
  2.Istituto di Fotonica e Nanotecnologie, CNR, Via del Fosso del Cavaliere 100, 00133, Rome, Italy
- Author bio：
  
  Urban Senica (usenica@phys.ethz.ch)
  Giacomo Scalari (scalari@phys.ethz.ch)
- Funds：
- DOI：10.1038/s41377-022-01058-2
  CLC：
- Published：31 December 2022，
  
  Published Online：24 December 2022，
  
  Received：13 July 2022，
  
  Revised：04 November 2022，
  
  Accepted：26 November 2022
- Accepted：
Scan QR Code
Senica, U. et al. Planarized THz quantum cascade lasers for broadband coherent photonics. Light: Science & Applications, 11, 3098-3108 (2022).
DOI：

Senica, U. et al. Planarized THz quantum cascade lasers for broadband coherent photonics. Light: Science & Applications, 11, 3098-3108 (2022). DOI： 10.1038/s41377-022-01058-2.

摘要

Abstract

Recently

there has been a growing interest in integrated THz photonics for various applications in communications

spectroscopy and sensing. We present a new integrated photonic platform based on active and passive elements integrated in a double-metal

high-confinement waveguide layout planarized with a low-loss polymer. An extended top metallization keeps waveguide losses low while improving dispersion

thermal and RF properties

as it enables to decouple the design of THz and microwave cavities. Free-running on-chip quantum cascade laser combs spanning 800 GHz

harmonic states with over 1.1 THz bandwidth and RF-injected broadband incoherent states spanning over nearly 1.6 THz are observed using a homogeneous quantum-cascade active core. With a strong external RF drive

actively mode-locked pulses as short as 4.4 ps can be produced

as measured by SWIFTS. We demonstrate as well passive waveguides with low insertion loss

enabling the tuning of the laser cavity boundary conditions and the co-integration of active and passive elements on the same THz photonic chip.

关键词

Keywords

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