An electrical and computer engineering professor is creating a novel terahertz frequency laser that can operate closer to room temperature than any other previously developed.
Dayan Ban and his research team have designed and fabricated a laser that can be operated at a temperature of 199.5K (-73.5 degree C) — a new world record for the maximum lasing temperature. Their findings push the lasing temperature closer to the ones that can be obtained through a thermal electrical cooler. Ban says the end result will likely lead to next-generation terahertz imaging systems and high-speed communications products, including everything from non-invasive medical imaging, environmental monitoring to satellite communication.
“Eventually we wish to demonstrate a laser device that can be operated at 230K or higher temperatures and therefore don’t need to be cooled down through a bulky, energy-hungry and in-efficient cryostat,” says Ban, who is also the associate director of Waterloo’s nanotechnology engineering program. “We will then be able to package a plug-and-play device that is similar to the size of a BlackBerry cell phone, which would greatly promote the emerging terahertz technologies and allow people explore new applications in the largely-unexploited terahertz electromagnetic spectrum.”
Ban, who originally began his research eight years ago when he was employed by the National Research Council (NRC) of Canada, leads a Waterloo Engineering research team that collaborates with researchers from NRC, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Technische Universität München and Shanghai Jiao Tong University. Their research was recently highlighted in scientific journal Nature Photonics. The first author of the paper entitled Chasing Room Temperature is Ban's doctoral student Saeed Fathololoumi.