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Intensity noise properties of quantum cascade lasers

Tobias Gensty, Wolfgang Elsäßer, and Christian Mann

Open Access Open Access

Abstract

We present investigations of the the relative intensity noise (RIN) of a quantum cascade laser (QC) laser in continuous wave operation. We analyze the intensity noise properties in terms of the relative intensity noise (RIN). In contrast to conventional interband semiconductor diode lasers we obtain a different scaling behavior of RIN with increasing optical output power for QC lasers. From a semiclassical noise model we find that this result is due to the cascaded active regions each incorporating three laser levels, and is therefore a particular feature of QC lasers.

©2005 Optical Society of America

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Figures (5)
Fig. 1.
Fig. 1. Schematic conduction band profile of one gain stage of a 3-level QC laser. Also indicated is the electron transport (arrows) and photon emission (wavy arrow) due to the laser transition between level 3 and 2.

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Fig. 2.
Fig. 2. Scheme of the experimental setup. The emitted light of the quantum cascade laser (QCL) is collected by an elliptical mirror and focused onto the photovoltaic detector (D).The detected signal is is split into the AC current and DC current by a Bias-Tee. The AC part is analyzed by a electrical spectrum analyzer (ESA) after amplification using a low noise amplifier (A). The photocurrent Iph is measured in the DC part of the signal.

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Fig. 3.
Fig. 3. Experimentally determined RIN as a function of the emitted optical power of the investigated QC laser in cw-operation at a heat sink temperature of T=88 K. The RIN is measured at a frequency of 40 MHz. The solid line depicts the least-square fit to the experimental data.

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Fig. 4.
Fig. 4. Calculated relative intensity noise RIN as a function of the optical output power at a frequency of 40 MHz for the QC laser under investigation. The solid line shows the total RIN. Additionally, the individual contributions RPP (dotted) and R 33 (dashed) which give the main contribution to the RIN are indicated. The experimental RIN of Fig. 3 is also shown (squares) for comparison.

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Fig. 5.
Fig. 5. Scaling parameter γ of the calculated RIN as a function of the number of gain stages Z incorporated into the active region of a QC laser at an injection current of 1.2Ithr .

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Tables (1)

Tables Icon

Table 1. Parameter values used for RIN calculations. The differential gain parameter is obtained by solving the steady-state rate equations and inserting the experimentally determined threshold current. The spontaneous emission parameter β is determined from a fit to the experimental PI-curve. The photon lifetime is obtained from the measurement of the net modal gain [18] and the phonon scattering times are estimated using Fermi’s Golden rule for the intersubband transition [18].

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Equations (11)

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R I N ( ω ) = < δ P 2 > P 0 2 .
R I N ( ω ) = S P ( ω ) B G I ph 2 R ,
d N 3 d t = I in q − N 3 τ 32 − N 3 τ 31 − g ( N 3 − N 2 ) P ,
d N 2 d t = N 3 τ 32 − N 2 τ 21 + g ( N 3 − N 2 ) P ,
d N 1 d t = N 3 τ 31 + N 2 τ 21 − I out q ,
d P d t = Z g ( N 3 − N 2 ) P + Z β N 3 τ e − P τ P .
RIN ( ω ) = R PP ( ω ) + R 33 ( ω )
< F P F P > = 2 Z ( β N 3 τ e + g N 3 P ) ≡ 2 D PP
< F 3 F 3 > = 2 ( N 3 τ 31 + N 3 τ 32 + g N 3 P ) ≡ 2 D 33 .
R PP ( ω ) = 2 D PP f P ( ω )
R 33 ( ω ) = 2 D 33 f 3 ( ω )
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