Toward Silicon-Based Lasers for Terahertz Sources

Design of n-type silicon-based quantum cascade lasers for terahertz light emission

The design of terahertz quantum cascade lasers based on electronic intersubband transitions in Ge/SiGe quantum wells is investigated. A detailed theoretical model of the conduction-band lineup of these heterostructures is first presented and used to show that large quantum confinement in the L valleys can be obtained with properly selected layer compositions and thicknesses. Computation of the ...

Terahertz Lasers Based on Intersubband Transitions

Semiconductor quantum wells are human-made quantum mechanical systems in which the energy levels can be designed and engineered to be of any value. Consequently, unipolar lasers based on intersubband transitions (electrons that make lasing transitions between subband levels within the conduction band) were proposed for long-wavelength sources as early as the 1970s. However, because of the great...

Terahertz sources based on Čerenkov difference-frequency generation in quantum cascade lasers

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Terahertz difference-frequency quantum cascade laser sources on silicon

Terahertz quantum cascade laser sources based on intra-cavity frequency mixing are currently the only monolithic electrically pumped semiconductor devices that can operate in the 1–6 THz spectral range at room temperature. The introduction of the Cherenkov waveguide scheme in these devices grown on semi-insulating InP substrates enabled generation of tens of microwatts of average terahertz powe...

Nanowire terahertz quantum cascade lasers