Yao Danyang, Zhang Jinchuan, Jia Zhiwei, Liu Yan, Liu Shuman, Han Genquan, Liu Fengqi, Hao Yue
Appl Opt. 2022 Apr 1;61(10):2757-2762. doi: 10.1364/AO.448112.
In this paper, a novel, to the best of our knowledge, monolithic non-mechanical semiconductor laser scanner in the mid-infrared (MIR) spectrum is proposed. A deflector above the active region at the substrate side is used for coupling the vertical light into a lateral substrate waveguide, which creates a chain of coherent emitters such as optical phased arrays (OPAs) for beam steering. The numerical simulation reveals that GaSb-based surface-emitting interband cascade lasers (SE-ICLs) are an excellent platform for waveguide scanner integration. Due to the hundreds of micrometers of optical path difference and the narrow gap between each emitter, an extremely high angle tuning coefficient of 0.84°/nm covering the whole 28.6° steering range is obtained. This work theoretically verifies the feasibility of integrating an OPA scanner into the GaSb-based SE-ICLs, providing a practical solution to fabricate compact steerable MIR laser sources. Note that this substrate OPA concept has strong adaptation potential to extend to even longer wavelength devices such as InP and GaAs-based quantum cascade lasers.
据我们所知，本文提出了一种新型的中红外（MIR）全固态非机械半导体激光扫描仪。在衬底侧有源区上方使用一个偏转器，用于将垂直光耦合到横向衬底波导中，从而形成一系列相干发射器，如用于光束控制的光学相控阵（OPA）。数值模拟表明，基于GaSb的表面发射带间级联激光器（SE-ICL）是集成波导扫描仪的理想平台。由于数百微米的光程差以及每个发射器之间的窄间隙，在整个28.6°的控制范围内获得了0.84°/nm的极高角度调谐系数。这项工作从理论上验证了将OPA扫描仪集成到基于GaSb的SE-ICL中的可行性，为制造紧凑型可控MIR激光源提供了一种切实可行的解决方案。请注意，这种衬底OPA概念具有很强的适配潜力，甚至可以扩展到更长波长的器件，如基于InP和GaAs的量子级联激光器。
