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Physica E 33 (2006) 1316 www.elsevier.com/locate/physe

Modeling of a quantum cascade laser operating at 1 THz

O. Bonno, J.-L. Thobel, F. Dessenne
lectronique et de Nanotechnologie, De partement Hyperfre quences et Semiconducteurs, UMR CNRS 8520, Institut dElectronique, de Microe , dex, France Universite des Sciences et Technologies de Lille, Avenue Poincare BP 69,59652 Villeneuve dAscq Ce Received 15 July 2005; accepted 19 July 2005 Available online 29 March 2006

Abstract A design of a quantum cascade laser operating at 1 THz is proposed and studied by means of ensemble Monte Carlo simulation. Starting from a resonant-phonon structure working at 2.1 THz [B. Williams, S. Kumar, Q. Hu, J. Reno, Electron. Lett. 40 (7) (2004) 431], a renement is proposed in order to reduce the lasing frequency. SchrodingerPoisson calculations show that frequency as low as 1 THz can be reached, by adjusting the AlGaAs barrier heights. Moreover, our Monte Carlo simulation predicts a signicant population inversion. r 2006 Published by Elsevier B.V.
PACS: 73.63.Hs; 72.10.d; 42.55.Px Keywords: Monte Carlo simulation; Quantum cascade laser; Terahertz frequencies

1. Introduction Recently, the development of coherent-light sources in the terahertz (THz) frequency range has sparked a great deal of interest, owing to the large number of possible applications in, e.g., chemical monitoring, astronomical sensing or biomedical imaging. Since the rst realization of a quantum cascade laser (QCL) in 1994 by Faist et al. [1], a tremendous research effort has been devoted to extend the operating frequency in the far-infrared. QCLs are unipolar lasers based on intersubband transitions in a multiquantum well heterostructure. They are made up of a large number of identical epitaxial sequences, hereafter called stages. The working frequency can be tuned in a broad range by adjusting layer thicknesses and material compositions. Recently, QCLs have demonstrated laser operation at reasonable power and far-infrared wavelengths as high as 100 mm and beyond [24]. THz lasing in QCLs may be achieved using different active region designs. Indeed, the rst THz QCL has
Corresponding author. Tel.: +33 0 3 20 19 78 74; fax: +33 0 3 20 19 78 92. E-mail address: jean-luc.thobel@iemn.univ-lille1.fr (J.-L. Thobel).

been demonstrated by Kohler et al. [5] with a chirped superlattice structure operating at 4.4 THz. With a socalled bound-to-continuum transition, Ajili and coworkers [3] have reached 2.3 THz. Thanks to another promising design, named resonant-phonon (RP) QCL, the lowest frequency to date without the assistance of magnetic elds has been recently obtained, namely 2.1 THz [6]. Such a device, initially proposed by Williams et al. [7], is based on polar optic phonon (POP) scattering assisted depopulation. Theoretical studies of QCLs [8,9] are useful in order to develop strategies to optimize the output characteristics and propose structures operating at the lowest possible frequency. To study electron transport in THz QCLs, any realistic model must account for all important scattering mechanisms, in particular POP and electronelectron scattering (EES). Decreasing the lasing frequency downward 1 THz is extremely challenging since population inversion is especially difcult to maintain when subbands are closely spaced in energy, owing to EES [10]. In this article, a way to further decrease the operating frequency of RP QCLs is suggested. To this aim, starting from the RP QCL operating at 2.1 THz, we propose to act on barrier heights in order to reach frequencies as low as 1 THz. The

1386-9477/$ - see front matter r 2006 Published by Elsevier B.V. doi:10.1016/j.physe.2005.07.020

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14 O. Bonno et al. / Physica E 33 (2006) 1316
90 80 70 60 50 40 30

Energy level (meV)

possibility of gain is investigated by means of a Monte Carlo simulation. The evolution of the population inversion, as well as the current density, with the applied eld of the proposed 1 THz structure is then calculated and discussed. 2. The structure Starting from the rst published structure, operating at 3.4 THz [7], renements of the epitaxial sequence have been proposed by Williams and co-workers. By a careful choice of the layer widths, Williams et al. [6] have achieved the lowest frequency to date. The epitaxial sequence of this device is quite simple, being just composed of four wells per stage. Fig. 1 represents the band prole and squared wave functions, jjm zj2 , of this 2.1 THz QCL. The calculation has been performed by means of a self-consistent Schrodinger Poisson resolution that accounts for the periodicity of the structure [10]. The principle of operation of this QCL can be described considering ve subbands, labeled E m . The population inversion occurs between levels E 5 and E 4 . States E 4 and E 3 are resonantly coupled (anti-crossed) and the energy separation DE 32 is adjusted so as to match the POP energy. Thus, POP-emission scattering provides a very efcient way to depopulate the lower laser level E 4 . Moreover, thanks to the resonant coupling between levels m 3; 4, the mechanism is selective, avoiding direct transition from the upper laser level into injector states m 1; 2. Low frequencies are highly desirable in order to entirely ll the so-called Terahertz Gap, from 1 to 10 THz. In this article, in order to further reduce the lasing frequency, we propose to act on the height of the barriers. Indeed, the following reasoning can be used: a barrier height increase dE c can be treated by rst order perturbation theory. Thus, the correction dE m of the mth energy level is given by dE m dE c Pm , where Pm is the probability of presence in
250 B2 200 B4 T = 44 K F = 9 kV/cm

(a)

E5 E4 E3

E2 E1

8 7.5 7 6.5 6 z54 (nm)

(b)
E5-E4 (meV) 15 10 5 0 0 100 200 300 Barrier height (meV)

400

Fig. 2. Evolution with the height of B2 and B4 barriers of: (a) energy levels; (b) lasing transition energy DE 54 (left axis) and dipole matrix element hz54 i (right axis).

the considered barrier. From Fig. 1 we can notice that jj5 zj2 almost vanishes in the barriers labeled B2 and B4 , whereas jj4 zj2 remains signicant. As a result, when these barriers are heightened, E 5 remains almost constant whereas E 4 is increased. This idea can be veried from Fig. 2(a), which shows the evolution of the energy levels with H, the height of both B2 and B4 barriers. As expected, the energy of the higher laser state E 5 is not affected by the increase of H, while all other relevant energy levels are raised. Note that, for the considered range of H, the energy separation DE 32 approximately matches the POP energy, so that POP scattering assisted depopulation mechanism remains efcient. As a summary, we present in Fig. 2(b) the possible lasing transition DE 54 (left axis) and the dipole matrix element hz54 i (right axis) as a function of H. A frequency of 1 THz is reached for DE c 0:25 eV, with a high dipole element hz54 i 6:3 nm. We have considered that the band offset DE c between GaAs and Alx Ga1x As is DE c 0:674 x 0:27 x2 , following Ref. [11] and using a 62:38 rule. Thus, the frequency of 1 THz is reached for an Al mole fraction of about 33%. 3. Monte Carlo results

Energy (meV)

150 5 4 3 100 2 1 50

20

40

60 80 Position (nm)

100

120

Fig. 1. Calculated potential and squared wave functions of the GaAs/ AlGaAs RP QCL of Ref. [6].

To conclude about the possibility of lasing operation for this structure, one needs to monitor the population inversion Dn54 which can be obtained from Monte Carlo simulations. The model has been extensively described in a previous paper [10]. Its main features are the following: (i) EES is included using a nonequilibrium multi-subband screening model; (ii) the periodicity of the QCL is accounted for in the following manner: when an interstage transition occurs, the particle is re-injected in the central stage and contributes to the current [8]. We have monitored 5000 particles during 200 ps using a constant time step of 2 fs. We now focus on the population inversion as a function of the bias. From Fig. 3(a), one notices that it is possible to

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4 (a) n54 (109 cm-2) 3 Current density (kA/cm2) 1 2 1 0 5 G54 (arb. unit) 4 3 2 1 0 6 8 10 Applied field (kV/cm) 12 14 10-2 6 8 10 Applied field (kV/cm) 12 14 (b)

10-1

Fig. 4. Current density against applied bias at T 44 K.

Fig. 3. Evolution with the applied eld, at T 44 K, of: (a) population inversion Dn54 ; (b) the reduced gain G54 (Eq. (2)).

obtain a population inversion at 1 THz in this QCL structure, with a maximum value of Dn54 4 109 cm2 for F 9 kV=cm, i.e., 13% of the total sheet density. It is also interesting to evaluate the laser gain g54 , which is given by Ref. [12] g54 / G54 , G54 (1)

F X10 kV=cm, G 54 is about half its maximum value obtained for F 9 kV=cm. Indeed, for F X10 kV=cm the amplitude of the population inversion keeps signicant values, about 5% of the total sheet density. When the eld increases, the frequency is detuned from 1 THz: for example, due to Stark shift, n  E 5 E 4 =h 1:6 THz for F 12 kV=cm. The possible use of this low current regime for laser operation deserves further investigation. 4. Conclusion A design of a RP QCL with a frequency as low as 1 THz has been proposed. This frequency has been obtained by precisely optimizing the barrier heights of a 2.1 THz RP QCL proposed by Williams et al. This QCL has then been studied by means of an ensemble Monte Carlo simulation accounting for all relevant scattering mechanisms. Our results support that a signicant population inversion at frequencies as low as 1 THz is possible. Acknowledgment The authors would like to thank the Institut de Developpement et des Ressources en Informatique Scientique (IDRIS) for generous allocation of computer time. References
[1] J. Faist, F. Capasso, D. Sivco, C. Sirtori, A. Hutchinson, A. Cho, Science 264 (5158) (1994) 553. [2] B. Williams, S. Kumar, H. Callebaut, Q. Hu, J. Reno, Appl. Phys. Lett. 83 (11) (2003) 2124. [3] L. Ajili, G. Scalari, J. Faist, H. Beere, E. Lineld, D. Ritchie, G. Davies, Appl. Phys. Lett. 85 (18) (2004) 3986. [4] S. Barbieri, J. Alton, H. Beere, J. Fowler, E. Lineld, D. Ritchie, Appl. Phys. Lett. 85 (10) (2004) 1674. [5] R. Kohler, A. Tredicucci, F. Beltram, H. Beere, E. Linfeld, A. Davies, D. Richtie, R. Iotti, F. Rossi, Nature 417 (2002) 156. [6] B. Williams, S. Kumar, Q. Hu, J. Reno, Electron. Lett. 40 (7) (2004) 431.

where G54 is the FWHM linewidth of the optical transition 5 ! 4 and G 54 is the reduced gain: G 54 hz54 i2 Dn54 DE 54 . (2)

G 54 gathers quantities that can be evaluated through the Monte Carlo simulation, while G54 , although somehow related to scattering rates, is not obvious to deduce from the calculations. Thus, we concentrate only on G54 that we have plotted as a function of the applied eld at lattice temperature T 44 K in Fig. 3(b). It can be noticed that, at high applied elds, G 54 suffers from the decrease of the dipole matrix element. We now focus on the current. To this aim, we show in Fig. 4 the calculated current density-applied eld characteristic at T 44 K. One can notice the high values of the current density, with a maximum J max 4 kA=cm2 obtained for F 9 kV=cm. This high value can be explained by the fact that injector states of one stage, j1 z and j2 z, are strongly coupled with the higher laser state j50 z of the next stage. Indeed, a large interstage dipole matrix element hz150 i 6 nm is found. Note that the main contribution to the current comes from intercarrier collisions: for example, at F 9 kV=cm, 65% of the current is due to EES. Moreover, one can see that, after the abrupt negative differential resistance regime, the current density seems to saturate at $200 A=cm2 , 20 times lower than J max . For this low current regime,

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16 O. Bonno et al. / Physica E 33 (2006) 1316 [10] O. Bonno, J. Thobel, F. Dessenne, J. Appl. Phys. 97 (2005) 043702. [11] S. Hava, R. Hunsperger, J. Appl. Phys. 57 (12) (1985) 5330. [12] Q. Hu, B.S. Williams, S. Kumar, H. Callebaut, S. Kohen, J.L. Reno, Semicond. Sci. Technol. 20 (7) (2005) S228. [7] B. Williams, H. Callebaut, S. Kumar, Q. Hu, J. Reno, Appl. Phys. Lett. 82 (7) (2003) 1015. [8] R.C. Iotti, F. Rossi, Phys. Rev. Lett. 87 (14) (2001) 146603. [9] D. Indjin, Z. Ikonic, V.D. Jovanovic, N. Vukmirovic, P. Harrison, R.W. Kelsall, Semicond. Sci. Technol. 20 (7) (2005) S237.