Modeling of Surface-Emitting Grating-Outcoupled Lasers for Mid/Far-Infrared Difference-Frequency Generation
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Physical principles and an analytical theory of operation of the hybrid-emitting nonlinear-mixing lasers which are dual-wavelength near-infrared or mid-infrared lasers simultaneously generating mid/far-infrared difference-frequency radiation due to an intracavity mode mixing are developed. In the hybrid-emitting design, the difference-frequency mid/far-infrared signal is surface-emitted by means of a grating, while the dual-wavelength near-infrared or mid-infrared losing proceeds in a standard edge-emitting geometry. Employing intracavity optical pump fields provides the possibility of the injection current pumping and removes many problems associated with the external optical pump, e.g., drive absorption and spatial inhomogeneity which were encountered in previous works on nonlinear optics in semiconductors. The grating (dielectric or metal) can be implemented either on the surface or in the bulk of any nonlinear-mixing laser, independently on its electrical pumping design, and provides an efficient diffractive (Bragg) coupling of the nonlinear current, generated in the bulk of the heterostructure, to the output mid/far-infrared radiation in the free space. The proposed Surface-Emitting Grating-Outcoupled Lasers (SEGOLs) offer a new path to efficient intracavity nonlinear mixing in semiconductor injection lasers by overcoming the problems of phase-matching, nonlinear overlap, and large mid/far-infrared losses. This scheme is expected to combine advantages of standard near-IR diode lasers (high compactness, reliability, continuous-wave room-temperature operation, low threshold injection current pumping) or quantum cascade lasers with possibility of a widely tunable continuous-wave operation in the mid/far-infrared range, including THz range. Hence, SEGOLs greatly increase the output power of mid/far-infrared signal as well as essentially improve its directional radiation pattern. Large 2-dimensional SEGOL-arrays can be capable to provide electronically steered ultra-narrow mid/far-infrared radiation beams of relatively high power (about 100 mW for the mid-infrared range and 1 mW for the far-infrared range) that makes these mid/far-infrared sources useful for many applications.
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Proceedings of LFNM 2005. 7th International Conference on Laser and Fiber-Optical Networks Modeling, 2005.
