Broadband continuous single-mode tuning of a short-cavity quantum-cascade VECSEL
Broadband continuous single-mode tuning of a short-cavity quantum-cascade VECSEL
复制标题
短腔量子级联VECSEL的宽带连续单模调谐
DOI：
10.1038/s41566-019-0518-z
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发表时间：
2019-12-01
期刊：
影响因子：
35
通讯作者：
Williams, Benjamin S.
中科院分区：
文献类型：
--
作者：
Curwen, Christopher A.;Reno, John L.;Williams, Benjamin S.
Changing the length of a laser cavity is a simple technique for continuously tuning the wavelength of a laser but is rarely used for broad fractional tuning, with a notable exception of the vertical-cavity surface-emitting laser (VCSEL)(1,2). This is because, to avoid mode hopping, the cavity must be kept optically short to ensure a large free spectral range compared to the gain bandwidth of the amplifying material. Terahertz quantum-cascade lasers are ideal candidates for such a short cavity scheme as they demonstrate exceptional gain bandwidths (up to octave spanning)(3) and can be integrated with broadband amplifying metasurfaces(4). We present such a quantum-cascade metasurface-based vertical-external-cavity surface-emitting laser (VECSEL) that exhibits over 20% continuous fractional tuning of a single laser mode. Such tuning is possible because the metasurface has subwavelength thickness, which allows lasing on low-order Fabry-Perot cavity modes. Good beam quality and high output power are simultaneously obtained.
