Ultrashort pulse generation from a graphene-coupled passively mode-locked terahertz laser
arXiv:2209.10204 · doi:10.1038/s41566-023-01195-z
Abstract
The generation of stable trains of ultra-short (fs-ps), terahertz (THz)-frequency radiation pulses, with large instantaneous intensities, is an underpinning requirement for the investigation of light-matter interactions, for metrology and for ultra-high-speed communications. In solid-state electrically-pumped lasers, the primary route for generating short pulses is through passive mode-locking. However, this has not yet been achieved in the THz range, defining one of the longest standing goals over the last two decades. In fact, the realization of passive mode-locking has long been assumed to be inherently hindered by the fast recovery times associated with the intersubband gain of THz lasers. Here, we demonstrate a self-starting miniaturized ultra-short pulse THz laser, exploiting an original device architecture that includes the surface patterning of multilayer-graphene saturable absorbers distributed along the entire cavity of a double-metal semiconductor 2.30-3.55 THz wire laser. Self-starting pulsed emission with 4.0-ps-long pulses in a compact, all-electronic, all-passive and inexpensive configuration is demonstrated.
arXiv comment20 pages, 4 figures
References in corpus (16)
- Graphene Mode-Locked Ultrafast Laser
- 20 years of developments in optical frequency comb technology and applications
- Ultrafast collinear scattering and carrier multiplication in graphene
- Non-equilibrium dynamics of photo-excited electrons in graphene: collinear scattering, Auger processes, and the impact of screening
- Stable mode-locked pulses from mid-infrared semiconductor lasers
- Black phosphorus Q-switched and mode-locked Er:ZBLAN fiber lasers at 3.5 um
- Fully phase-stabilized quantum cascade laser frequency comb
- Dissipative Kerr solitons in semiconductor ring lasers
- Short pulse generation and mode control of broadband terahertz quantum cascade lasers
- Optoelectronic device simulations based on macroscopic Maxwell-Bloch equations
- High dynamic range, heterogeneous, terahertz quantum cascade lasers featuring thermally-tunable frequency comb operation over a broad current range
- Coherent multi-mode dynamics in a Quantum Cascade Laser: Amplitude and Frequency-modulated Optical Frequency Combs
- Passive and hybrid mode locking in multi-section terahertz quantum cascade lasers
- Gain dynamics in a heterogeneous terahertz quantum cascade laser
- Engineering the spectral bandwidth of quantum cascade laser frequency combs
- Terahertz semiconductor laser source at -12 C
Cited by in corpus (4)
- Roadmap for Photonics with 2D Materials
- Engineering THz-frequency light generation, detection and manipulation through graphene
- Fundamental scaling limits and bandwidth shaping of frequency-modulated combs
- Ultrafast Opto-Electronic and Thermal Tuning of Third-Harmonic Generation in a Graphene Field Effect Transistor