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Antireflection Coating for External-Cavity Quantum Cascade Laser Near 5 THz

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 February 2011

David B. Fenner
Affiliation:
Fenner@psicorp.com, Physical Sciences Inc., Photonics and BioMed Tech, 20 New England Business Center, Andover, MA, 01810, United States, 978-738-8205
Joel M. Hensley
Affiliation:
Hensley@psicorp.com, Physical Sciences Inc., Photonics, 20 New England Business Center, Andover, MA, 01810, United States
Mark G. Allen
Affiliation:
Allen@psicorp.com, Physical Sciences Inc., Photonics, 20 New England Business Center, Andover, MA, 01810, United States
Jihua Xu
Affiliation:
tredicucci@sns.it, Scuola Normale Superiore, Piazza dei Cavalieri 7, Pisa, 56126, Italy
Alessandro Tredicucci
Affiliation:
tredicucci@sns.it, Scuola Normale Superiore, Piazza dei Cavalieri 7, Pisa, 56126, Italy
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Abstract

We report a simple and practical method to design and fabricate antireflection (AR) coatings for the emission facet of GaAs-based laser chips suited to operating in the very far infrared (IR) or terahertz (THz) spectral region. Vacuum-deposited silica films about 8 Ým thick serve as a single layer, quarter-wave AR and with reflectivities measured below 0.5% over ~10 cm-1 range in the far IR. Quantum cascade lasers (QCL) thus coated function well at 8-10 K coupled to a tunable, external cavity optical system at ~158 cm-1 (∼4.75 THz).

Type
Research Article
Copyright
Copyright © Materials Research Society 2007

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