Microring quantum cascade surface emitting lasers

TL;DR

This paper presents the development of a miniaturized quantum cascade surface emitting laser with ring cavity design, achieving lasing at mid-infrared wavelengths with high mirror reflectivity and low threshold power.

Contribution

It introduces a novel ring cavity design for quantum cascade lasers, demonstrating lasing at small diameters and benchmarking against linear microcavities.

Findings

Achieved lasing with 50 μm diameter rings.

Demonstrated a threshold power of 274 mW at 100 μm diameter.

Achieved mirror reflectivity of 0.95.

Abstract

We miniaturize a vertically-coupled in-plane whispering gallery mode cavity incorporating a quantum cascade gain medium, aiming to realize the mid-infrared counterpart to the vertical cavity surface emitting laser (VCSEL). Building on previous work with linear microcavities, we introduce a new type of quantum cascade surface emitting laser (QCSEL) by miniaturizing a buried heterostructure ring cavity. At wavelengths of 4.5 ${\mu}$m and 8 ${\mu}$m, we investigate the optical losses for decreasing ring diameters while benchmarking the device performance against linear microcavities. We achieve an equivalent mirror reflectivity of 0.95 and demonstrate lasing with ring diameters as small as 50 ${\mu}$m. Finally, we report a continuous-wave threshold power dissipation of 274mW for a 100 ${\mu}$m diameter ring QCSEL, characterized on wafer level at 20 ${^\circ}$C.