Terahertz oscillation and stimulated emission from planar microcavities

• Main Author: Gehlhaar, Robert
• Other Authors: Technische Universität Dresden, Physik
• Format: Doctoral Thesis
• Language: English
• Published: Saechsische Landesbibliothek- Staats- und Universitaetsbibliothek Dresden 2007
• Subjects: microcavity; optical thin films; organic laser; terahertz oscillation; terahertz modulation; Fabry-Perot filter; Mikroresonator; Organischer Laser; Optische Dünnschichten; Terahertz Modulation; Fabry-Perot-Filter; ddc:530; rvk:UP 9000
• Online Access: http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:swb:14-1184931926949-93266; http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:swb:14-1184931926949-93266; http://www.qucosa.de/fileadmin/data/qucosa/documents/1721/1184931926949-9326.pdf

In the past decades, the miniaturization in optics led to new devices with structural sizes in the range of the light wavelength, where the photonic modes are con- fined and the number of states is limited. In the smallest microcavities, i.e. micrometer sized optical resonators, the propagation of only one mode is permitted that is simultaneously amplified internally. This particularly strong enhancement of the electric field is directly related to the quality factor of the cavity. By introducing an optical dipole into a high-Q microcavity, the spontaneous emission is amplified at the cavity mode frequency enabling stimulated emission in an inverted system. Although some of theses cavity e®ects can only be understood by quantum elec- trodynamic theory, most mechanisms are accessible by classical and semi-classical approaches. In this thesis, one-dimensional planar microcavities with quality factors up to 4500 have been fabricated by physical vapor deposition of dielectric thin films and organic active materials. A new cavity design based on anisotropic dielectric mirrors grown by oblique angle deposition microcavities with two energetically shifted orthogonally polarized modes is presented. The application of these anisotropic structures for terahertz di®erence signal generation is demonstrated in spectrally and time resolved transmission experiments, where optical beats with repetition rates in the terahertz range are observed. Optically pumped organic vertical cavity surface emitting lasers (VCSELs) have been realized by applying an organic solid state laser compound and high reflectance distributed Bragg reflectors. These lasers combine a very low laser threshold with small beam divergence and good stability. A transfer of the anisotropic design towards an organic VCSEL results in the generation of two perpendicularly polarized laser modes with a splitting adjustable by the fabrication conditions. The observation of an oscillation of two laser modes in a photomixing experiment proves a phase coupling mechanism. This demonstrates the potential of the anisotropic cavity design for a passive or active component in a terahertz radiation source or frequency generator. Furthermore, microcavities with two and three coupled resonators are investigated. By the application of time-resolved transmission experiments, spatial oscil- lations of the internal electric field - photonic Bloch oscillations - are successfully demonstrated. In combination with the anisotropic microcavities, this is a second concept for the modulation of transmitted light with terahertz frequencies. All experiments are accompanied by numerical or analytical models. Transmission experiments of continuously incident light and single laser pulses are compared with transfer matrix simulations and Fourier transform based approaches. For the modeling of emission experiments, a plane wave expansion method is successfully used. For the analysis of the organic VCSEL dynamics, we apply a set of rate equations that explains the gain switching process.