Optically Pumped Far-Infrared Lasers Based on Photonic Band Gap Crystals

摘要

The primary focus of this effort was to demonstrate an ultrasmall optically pumped far infrared (OPFIR) laser based on a photonic band gap (PBG) crystal cavity. Conventional cylindrical copper waveguide ultrasmall OPFIR lasers were constructed and their performance properties were measured as a function of pump power, gas pressure, and cavity length. Pure and doped two dimensional PBG crystals were constructed, and their transmissivity was measured as a function of wavelength, incidence angle, crystal size, and doping configuration. A high resolution THz spectrometer based on a low temperature- grown GaAs photomixer and a mode-locked Ti:Sapphire laser was constructed and molecular spectra were measured. The amplitude and phase noise properties of the Ar(+) laser-pumped Ti:Sapphire were measured as a function of harmonic number using this photomixer. Finally, the photoluminescence of type-II GaAs/AlAs single quantum wells was measured as a function of well width, pump power, and temperature.