Importance of interface roughness induced intersubband scattering in mid-infrared quantum cascade lasers

Yenting Chiu; Yamac Dikmelik; Peter Q. Liu; Nyan L. Aung; Jacob B. Khurgin; Claire F. Gmachl

doi:10.1063/1.4764516

Importance of interface roughness induced intersubband scattering in mid-infrared quantum cascade lasers

Yenting Chiu, Yamac Dikmelik, Peter Q. Liu, Nyan L. Aung, Jacob B. Khurgin, Claire F. Gmachl

Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review

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Abstract

The electron transit time of many different quantum cascade lasers has been measured and compared to the calculated upper laser level lifetimes with and without taking into account interface roughness induced intersubband scattering. A significantly better correlation is found between the experimental results and the calculation when including the contribution from the interface roughness (corr. coeff.: 0.79 vs. 0.43 with and without the consideration of interface roughness, respectively). This suggests that in addition to longitudinal optical phonons, interface roughness is also crucial in determining the intersubband lifetimes in mid-infrared quantum cascade laser and should routinely be included in design.

Original language	English (US)
Article number	171117
Journal	Applied Physics Letters
Volume	101
Issue number	17
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1063/1.4764516
State	Published - Oct 22 2012

All Science Journal Classification (ASJC) codes

Physics and Astronomy (miscellaneous)

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10.1063/1.4764516

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@article{0a5f5478d9f048acb01186e2802259be,

title = "Importance of interface roughness induced intersubband scattering in mid-infrared quantum cascade lasers",

abstract = "The electron transit time of many different quantum cascade lasers has been measured and compared to the calculated upper laser level lifetimes with and without taking into account interface roughness induced intersubband scattering. A significantly better correlation is found between the experimental results and the calculation when including the contribution from the interface roughness (corr. coeff.: 0.79 vs. 0.43 with and without the consideration of interface roughness, respectively). This suggests that in addition to longitudinal optical phonons, interface roughness is also crucial in determining the intersubband lifetimes in mid-infrared quantum cascade laser and should routinely be included in design.",

author = "Yenting Chiu and Yamac Dikmelik and Liu, {Peter Q.} and Aung, {Nyan L.} and Khurgin, {Jacob B.} and Gmachl, {Claire F.}",

note = "Funding Information: The authors would like to thank Dr. Yu Yao for designing and fabricating some of the broad gain quantum cascade devices and Xue Huang for the long wavelength (∼14 μm) quantum cascade devices. We would also like to acknowledge Dr. William Charles for some of the MBE grown samples and Dr. Xiaojun Wang for the MOCVD growth. This work is supported in part by the Mid-InfraRed Technologies for Health and the Environment Research Center (National Science Foundation Grants MIRTHE NSF-ERC; EEC0540832) and DARPE-EMIL.",

year = "2012",

month = oct,

day = "22",

doi = "10.1063/1.4764516",

language = "English (US)",

volume = "101",

journal = "Applied Physics Letters",

issn = "0003-6951",

publisher = "American Institute of Physics",

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T1 - Importance of interface roughness induced intersubband scattering in mid-infrared quantum cascade lasers

AU - Chiu, Yenting

AU - Dikmelik, Yamac

AU - Liu, Peter Q.

AU - Aung, Nyan L.

AU - Khurgin, Jacob B.

AU - Gmachl, Claire F.

N1 - Funding Information: The authors would like to thank Dr. Yu Yao for designing and fabricating some of the broad gain quantum cascade devices and Xue Huang for the long wavelength (∼14 μm) quantum cascade devices. We would also like to acknowledge Dr. William Charles for some of the MBE grown samples and Dr. Xiaojun Wang for the MOCVD growth. This work is supported in part by the Mid-InfraRed Technologies for Health and the Environment Research Center (National Science Foundation Grants MIRTHE NSF-ERC; EEC0540832) and DARPE-EMIL.

PY - 2012/10/22

Y1 - 2012/10/22

N2 - The electron transit time of many different quantum cascade lasers has been measured and compared to the calculated upper laser level lifetimes with and without taking into account interface roughness induced intersubband scattering. A significantly better correlation is found between the experimental results and the calculation when including the contribution from the interface roughness (corr. coeff.: 0.79 vs. 0.43 with and without the consideration of interface roughness, respectively). This suggests that in addition to longitudinal optical phonons, interface roughness is also crucial in determining the intersubband lifetimes in mid-infrared quantum cascade laser and should routinely be included in design.

AB - The electron transit time of many different quantum cascade lasers has been measured and compared to the calculated upper laser level lifetimes with and without taking into account interface roughness induced intersubband scattering. A significantly better correlation is found between the experimental results and the calculation when including the contribution from the interface roughness (corr. coeff.: 0.79 vs. 0.43 with and without the consideration of interface roughness, respectively). This suggests that in addition to longitudinal optical phonons, interface roughness is also crucial in determining the intersubband lifetimes in mid-infrared quantum cascade laser and should routinely be included in design.

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DO - 10.1063/1.4764516

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JF - Applied Physics Letters

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M1 - 171117

ER -

Importance of interface roughness induced intersubband scattering in mid-infrared quantum cascade lasers

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