Thin active region HgCdTe-based quantum cascade laser with quasi-relativistic dispersion law

Abstract

HgCdTe is promising as a material to solve a problem of the development of semiconductor sources with an operational frequency range of 6–10 THz due to the small optical phonon energies and electron effective mass. In this study, we calculate the dependence of the metal–metal waveguide characteristics on the number of cascades for the 3-well design HgCdTe-based quantum cascade laser at 8.3 THz. It is shown that four cascades are sufficient for lasing at a lattice temperature of 80 K due to the large gain in the active medium. The results of this study provide a way to simplify the fabrication of thin active region HgCdTe-based quantum cascade lasers for operation in the range of the GaAs phonon Reststrahlen band inaccessible to existing quantum cascade lasers.