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Difference-frequency pulse generation in quantum well heterolasers

  • Semiconductor Optics
  • Published:
Laser Physics

Abstract

It is shown that mid-to far-infrared (IR) and terahertz (THz) pulse generation via difference-frequency mixing in quantum well (QW) dual-wavelength heterolasers can be rather efficient under the modelocking regime for one or both lasing fields even at room temperature. In such a device, the long-wavelength field is produced in the process of intracavity difference-frequency mixing of two optical fields: continuous wave (CW) and pulsed (or both pulsed), due to the resonant intersubband quantum coherence in QWs, as well as due to the nonresonant second-order semiconductor bulk nonlinearity. The mode-locking regime of the optical generation allows one to significantly enhance the pulsed driving fields in comparison with those under CW operation and, therefore, substantially increase the output difference-frequency power. Within a simple model, an explicit formula for the intensity and shape of the generated IR or THz pulse is derived. It is shown that this method is capable of producing picosecond pulses at a ∼ 1-GHz repetition rate with a peak power of the order of 1 W and ≲0.2 mW at 10 and 50 µm wavelengths, respectively.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Institute of Applied Physics, Russian Academy of Sciences, ul. Ulyanova 46, Nizhni Novgorod, 603950, Russia

    V. A. Kukushkin, V. V. Kocharovsky & Vl. V. Kocharovsky

  2. Institute for the Physics of Microstructures, Russian Academy of Sciences, GSP-105, Nizhni Novgorod, 603950, Russia

    V. Ya. Aleshkin & A. A. Dubinov

  3. Physics Department and Institute for Quantum Studies, Texas A&M University, College Station, TX, 77843, USA

    A. A. Belyanin, V. V. Kocharovsky & M. O. Scully

  4. Applied Physics Group, Department of Mechanical & Aerospace Engineering and PRISM, Princeton University, Princeton, NJ, 08544, USA

    M. O. Scully

Authors
  1. V. A. Kukushkin
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  2. V. Ya. Aleshkin
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  3. A. A. Belyanin
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  4. A. A. Dubinov
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  5. V. V. Kocharovsky
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  6. Vl. V. Kocharovsky
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  7. M. O. Scully
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Original Text © Astro, Ltd., 2007.

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Kukushkin, V.A., Aleshkin, V.Y., Belyanin, A.A. et al. Difference-frequency pulse generation in quantum well heterolasers. Laser Phys. 17, 688–694 (2007). https://doi.org/10.1134/S1054660X07050143

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1134/S1054660X07050143

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