A high-efficiency regime for gas-phase terahertz lasers
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Author(s)
Phillips, Dane J.
Holliday, Samuel G.
Chua, Song-Liang
Bravo-Abad, Jorge
Everitt, Henry O.
Wang, Fan
Lee, Jeongwon
Joannopoulos, John
Soljacic, Marin
Johnson, Steven G
Date Issued
April 2018
Journal
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences
Publisher
National Academy of Sciences (U.S.)
Citation
Wang, Fan et al. “A High-Efficiency Regime for Gas-Phase Terahertz Lasers.” Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 115, 26 (June 2018): 6614–6619 © 2018 National Academy of Sciences
Version
Final published version
Abstract
We present both an innovative theoretical model and an experimental validation of a molecular gas optically pumped far-infrared (OPFIR) laser at 0.25 THz that exhibits 10× greater efficiency (39% of the Manley–Rowe limit) and 1,000× smaller volume than comparable commercial lasers. Unlike previous OPFIR-laser models involving only a few energy levels that failed even qualitatively to match experiments at high pressures, our ab initio theory matches experiments quantitatively, within experimental uncertainties with no free parameters, by accurately capturing the interplay of millions of degrees of freedom in the laser. We show that previous OPFIR lasers were inefficient simply by being too large and that high powers favor high pressures and small cavities. We believe that these results will revive interest in OPFIR laser as a powerful and compact source of terahertz radiation. Keywords: optically pumped far-infrared laser; terahertz source; continuous wave gas laser; laser modeling; rotational population inversion
MIT Department
Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of Mathematics
Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of Mechanical Engineering
Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of Physics
Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Research Laboratory of Electronics
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Article is made available in accordance with the publisher's policy and may be subject to US copyright law. Please refer to the publisher's site for terms of use.
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DOI of Published Version
https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1803261115
