Terahertz lasers based on germanium and silicon

Recent experimental and theoretical results of impurity doped germanium and silicon terahertz lasers are reviewed. Three different laser mechanisms exist in p-type germanium. Depending on the operating conditions and the properties of the crystal, laser transitions can occur between light- and heavy-hole subbands, between particular light-hole Landau levels or between impurity states. Electric and magnetic fields are required for laser operation. In n-type silicon lasing originates solely from impurity transitions of group-V donors, which are optically excited. The properties of these lasers depend upon the chemical nature of the impurity centre and the properties of the host material. The principles of operation are discussed in terms of their basic physical concepts. The state-of-the-art performance of these lasers is summarized.

[1]  Valery N. Shastin,et al.  Far‐Infrared Active Media Based on Shallow Impurity State Transitions in Silicon , 1998 .

[2]  E. G. Chirkova,et al.  Towards Si1−xGex quantum-well resonant-state terahertz laser , 2001 .

[3]  S. Ray,et al.  Terahertz electroluminescence from boron-doped silicon devices , 2003 .

[4]  Erik Bründermann,et al.  Widely Tunable Far‐Infrared Hot‐Hole Semiconductor Lasers , 2005 .

[5]  Douglas J. Paul,et al.  Picosecond intersubband dynamics in p-Si/SiGe quantum-well emitter structures , 2002 .

[6]  Robert E. Peale,et al.  Pulse separation control for mode-locked far-infrared p-Ge lasers , 1999 .

[7]  H. Riemann,et al.  Optically pumped terahertz semiconductor bulk lasers , 2003 .

[8]  I Hosako,et al.  p-type Ge far-infrared laser oscillation in Voigt configuration , 1992 .

[9]  W. R. Tribe,et al.  Interwell intersubband electroluminescence from Si/SiGe quantum cascade emitters , 2003 .

[10]  E. Haller,et al.  New results on stimulated emission from p-Germanium in crossed fields , 1988 .

[11]  Valery N. Shastin,et al.  Population inversion and far-infrared emission from optically pumped silicon , 1999 .

[12]  Douglas J. Paul,et al.  Si-based electroluminescence at THz frequencies , 2002 .

[13]  E. Gershenzon,et al.  H−-Like Impurity Centers, Molecular Complexes and Electron Delocalization in Semiconductors , 1985 .

[14]  Erich Gornik,et al.  Far-infrared semiconductor lasers , 1991 .

[15]  Valery N. Shastin,et al.  Active mode locking of a p-Ge hot hole laser , 1997 .

[16]  Eugene E. Haller,et al.  Double acceptor doped Ge: A new medium for inter‐valence‐band lasers , 1996 .

[17]  Hong Kyun Choi,et al.  Long-wavelength infrared semiconductor lasers , 2004 .

[18]  Erich Gornik,et al.  High repetition rate far‐infrared p‐type germanium hot hole lasers , 1995 .

[19]  K. Chao,et al.  Mechanism of population inversion in uniaxially strainedp-Ge continuous-wave lasers , 2000 .

[20]  Ronald Brown.  RECOMBINATION OF ELECTRONS AND DONORS IN N-TYPE GERMANIUM AND SILICON , 1964 .

[21]  B. Lax,et al.  Zeeman Effect of Impurity Levels in Silicon , 1960 .

[22]  H. Riemann,et al.  Terahertz emission from silicon doped by shallow impurities , 2001 .

[23]  Erich Gornik,et al.  Influence of impurity absorption on germanium hot-hole laser spectra , 1994 .

[24]  Pavlov,et al.  Stimulated emission from donor transitions in silicon , 2000, Physical review letters.

[25]  Eugene E. Haller,et al.  High duty cycle and continuous terahertz emission from germanium , 2000 .

[26]  S A Stoklitskiy.  Quantum states interaction in hot carriers accumulation and stimulated emission processes in p-Ge , 1992 .

[27]  M. S. Kagan,et al.  Widely tunable continuous-wave THz laser , 1999 .

[28]  Robert E. Peale,et al.  Dielectric selective mirror for intracavity wavelength selection in far-infrared p-Ge lasers , 2003 .

[29]  Valery N. Shastin,et al.  Tunable narrowband laser that operates on interband transitions of hot holes in germanium , 1993 .

[30]  T. Adam,et al.  Electroluminescence at 7 terahertz from phosphorus donors in silicon , 2004 .

[31]  Eugene E. Haller,et al.  Stimulated far-infrared emission from combined cyclotron resonances in germanium , 1997 .

[32]  S. H. Withers,et al.  Broad band p-Ge optical amplifier of terahertz radiation , 1999 .

[33]  Robert E. Peale,et al.  Evidence for self-mode-locking in p-Ge laser emission , 1998 .

[35]  T. Castner.  Raman Spin-Lattice Relaxation of Shallow Donors in Silicon , 1963 .

[36]  Eugene E. Haller,et al.  Terahertz emission of population-inverted hot-holes in single-crystalline silicon , 1998 .

[37]  Erik Bründermann,et al.  First operation of a far-infrared p-germanium laser in a standard close-cycle machine at 15 K , 1997 .

[38]  C. Kremser,et al.  Tunable cyclotron resonance-laser in p-Ge , 1992 .

[39]  F. Weisbuch,et al.  Ablation with a single micropatterned KrF laser pulse: quantitative evidence of transient liquid microflow driven by the plume pressure gradient at the surface of polyesters , 2003 .

[40]  G. Dehlinger,et al.  Intersubband electroluminescence from silicon-based quantum cascade structures. , 2000, Science.

[41]  E. G. Chirkova,et al.  Resonant acceptor states and terahertz stimulated emission of uniaxially strained germanium , 1999 .

[42]  Iwao Hosako,et al.  Continuous Wavelength Tuning of Inter-Valence-Band Laser Oscillation in p-Type Germanium Over Range of 80–120 μm , 1993 .

[43]  S. Komiyama,et al.  Evidence for induced far‐infrared emission from p‐Ge in crossed electric and magnetic fields , 1985 .

[44]  Ramdas,et al.  Redetermination of the valley-orbit (chemical) splitting of the 1s ground state of group-V donors in silicon. , 1993, Physical review. B, Condensed matter.

[45]  P. Carruthers,et al.  Thermal Conductivity of Solids IV: Resonance Fluorescence Scattering of Phonons by Donor Electrons in Germanium , 1963 .

[46]  Tunable cyclotron-resonance laser in germanium. , 1990 .

[47]  Yu. A. Mityagin,et al.  Anisotropy and uniaxial stress effects in submillimetre stimulated emission spectra of hot holes in germanium in strong E perpendicular to H fields , 1992 .

[48]  A. Ramdas,et al.  Effect of Uniaxial Stress on the Excitation Spectra of Donors in Silicon , 1965 .

[49]  M. Asche,et al.  Electron–Phonon Interaction in n‐Si , 1981 .

[50]  Robert E. Peale,et al.  Single axial-mode selection in a far-infrared p-Ge laser , 2000 .

[51]  Valery N. Shastin,et al.  Population inversion of Landau levels in the valence band of silicon in crossed electric and magnetic fields , 1998 .

[52]  P. Shiktorov,et al.  Numerical simulation of far infrared emission under population inversion of hole sub-bands , 1991 .

[53]  Melvin Lax,et al.  Cascade Capture of Electrons in Solids , 1960 .

[54]  Valery N. Shastin,et al.  Mode fine structure of the p-Ge intervalenceband laser measured by heterodyne mixing spectroscopy with an optically pumped ring gas laser , 1995 .

[55]  H. Riemann,et al.  Terahertz optically pumped Si:Sb laser , 2002 .

[56]  S. H. Withers,et al.  Actively mode-locked p-Ge laser in Faraday configuration , 1999 .

[57]  Franz Schreier,et al.  Observation of stratospheric OH at 2.5 THz with an airborne heterodyne system , 1995 .

[58]  S. Pavlov,et al.  Influence of group II and III shallow acceptors on the gain of p-Ge lasers , 2001 .

[59]  Valery N. Shastin,et al.  Gain of the mode locked p-Ge laser in the low field region , 1998 .

[60]  H. Riemann,et al.  Stimulated terahertz emission from arsenic donors in silicon , 2004 .

[61]  A. K. Ramdas,et al.  REVIEW ARTICLE: Spectroscopy of the solid-state analogues of the hydrogen atom: donors and acceptors in semiconductors , 1981 .

[62]  E. Linfield,et al.  Terahertz semiconductor-heterostructure laser , 2002, Nature.

[63]  H. Riemann,et al.  Stimulated terahertz emission from group-V donors in silicon under intracenter photoexcitation , 2002 .

[64]  Imran Mehdi,et al.  THz local oscillator technology , 2004, SPIE Astronomical Telescopes + Instrumentation.

[65]  H. Riemann,et al.  Far-infrared stimulated emission from optically excited bismuth donors in silicon , 2002 .

[66]  S. Duffy,et al.  Photomixers for Continuous-Wave Terahertz Radiation , 2003 .

[67]  G. Grüner.  Millimeter and Submillimeter Wave Spectroscopy of Solids , 1998 .

[68]  E. Gornik,et al.  Tunable lasers and detectors in the FIR , 1995 .

[69]  Eugene E. Haller,et al.  Stimulated far-infrared emission from copper-doped germanium crystals , 1997 .

[70]  Martin Koch,et al.  Bio-medical Applications of THz Imaging , 2003 .

[71]  V. N. Shastin,et al.  Hot hole inter-sub-band transition p-Ge FIR laser , 1991 .