Dataset associated with 'Silver-based surface plasmon waveguide for terahertz quantum cascade lasers'

This dataset contains the raw data of the publication about silver-based waveguide for THz QCLs, including waveguide analysis and experimental characteristics. Silver-based waveguides for terahertz-frequency quantum cascade lasers (THz QCLs) have been investigated, and good agreement is found between the waveguide analysis and the experimental characteristics. In the waveguide analysis, the dielectric constants of metal films are calculated based on the Drude model, in which the damping frequencies are extracted from the measured dc resistivities. The simulation shows that silver waveguides yield lower losses for THz QCLs across all practical operating temperatures and frequencies than their gold- and copper-based counterparts, both in surface-plasmon and double-metal waveguide geometries. Experimentally, we demonstrate higher operating temperatures and greater output powers when compared to identical devices fabricated with gold-based surface plasmon waveguides. The magnitude of the improvements is found to be dependent on the active-region design, such as the radiative diagonality and the doping concentration. Our results indicate that silver-based waveguides can potentially enable THz QCLs to operate at high temperature.