Optical and Quantum Electronics

, Volume 40, Issue 14–15, pp 1091–1095 | Cite as

Many body theory of THz intervalence gain in quantum wells

Article

Abstract

This paper presents calculations of THz gain in III–V quantum wells based on transitions between the valence bands. The system is out of equilibrium and the optical susceptibility leading to absorption and gain is calculated after a Keldysh nonequilibrium Greens’ functions approach. The relevance of many body and nonresonant contribution to the spectrum is discussed as a function of local population inversion in k-space for a system where the injected holes are distributed within the two lowest subbands without global population inversion.

Keywords

THz gain THz lasers Intersubband optics Lasing without inversion Nonequilibrium physics Intervalence band transitions 

PACS

71.36.+c 71.10.-w 73.31.Fg 

Preview

Unable to display preview. Download preview PDF.

Unable to display preview. Download preview PDF.

References

  1. Bates R., Lynch S.A., Paul D., Ikonic Z., Kelsall R.W., Harrison P., Liew S.L., Norris D.J., Cullis A.G., Tribe W.R., Arnone D.D.: Interwell intersubband electroluminescence from Si/SiGe quantum cascade emitters. Appl. Phys. Lett 83, 4092 (2003). doi: 10.1063/1.1626003 CrossRefADSGoogle Scholar
  2. Dehlinger G., Diehl L., Gennser U., Sigg H., Faist J., Ensslin K., Grutzmacher D., Muller E.: Intersubband Electroluminescence from Silicon-Based Quantum Cascade Structures. Science 290, 2277–2280 (2000). doi: 10.1126/science.290.5500.2277 CrossRefGoogle Scholar
  3. Diehl L., Mentese S., Müler E., Grützmacher D., Sigg H., Gennser U., Sagnes I., Campidelli Y., Kermarrec O., Bensahel D., Faist J.: Electroluminescence from strain-compensated Si[sub 0.2]Ge[sub 0.8]/Si quantum-cascade structures based on a bound-to-continuum transition. Appl. Phys. Lett 81, 4700 (2002). doi: 10.1063/1.1528729 CrossRefADSGoogle Scholar
  4. Friedman L.: Appl. Phys. Lett 78, 401 (2001). doi: 10.1063/1.1341221 Google Scholar
  5. Köhler R., Tredicucci A., Beltran F., Beere H.E., Linfield E.H., Davies A., Ritchie D.A., Iotti R., Rossi F.: Terahertz semiconductor-heterostructure laser. Nature 41, 156–159 (2002). doi: 10.1038/417156a CrossRefGoogle Scholar
  6. Paul D.J.: 8-band k.p modeling of the quantum confined Stark effect in Ge quantum wells on Si substrates. Phys. Rev B 77, 155323 (2008). doi: 10.1103/PhysRevB.77.155323 CrossRefADSGoogle Scholar
  7. Pereira M.F. Jr., Lee S.-C., Wacker A.: Controlling many-body effects in the midinfrared gain and terahertz absorption of quantum cascade laser structures. Phys. Rev. B 69, 205310 (2004). doi: 10.1103/PhysRevB.69.205310 CrossRefADSGoogle Scholar
  8. Pereira M.F. Jr., Wenzel H.: Interplay of Coulomb and nonparabolicity effects in the intersubband absorption of electrons and holes in quantum wells. Phys. Rev. B 70, 205331 (2004). doi: 10.1103/PhysRevB.70.205331 CrossRefADSGoogle Scholar
  9. Sirigu L., Terazzi R., Amanti M.I., Giovanni M., Faist J., Andrea Dubar L., Houdre R.: Terahertz quantum cascade lasers based on two-dimensional photonic crystal resonators. Opt. Express 16, 5206–5217 (2008). doi: 10.1364/OE.16.005206 CrossRefADSGoogle Scholar
  10. Soref R.A., Sun G.: Terahertz gain in SiGe/Si quantum staircase utilizing the heavy-hole inverted effective mass. Appl. Phys. Lett 79, 3639–3641 (2001). doi: 10.1063/1.1421079 CrossRefADSGoogle Scholar
  11. Sun G., Liu A., Khurgin J.B.: Valence intersubband lasers with inverted light-hole effective mass. Appl. Phys. Lett 72, 1481–1483 (1998). doi: 10.1063/1.120610 CrossRefADSGoogle Scholar
  12. Waldmüller I., Förstner J., Lee S.-C., Knorr A., Woener M., Reimann K., Kaindl R.A., Elsaesser T., Hey R., Ploog K.: Optical dephasing of coherent intersubband transitions in a quasi-two-dimensional electron gas. Phys. Rev. B 69, 205307 (2004). doi: 10.1103/PhysRevB.69.205307 CrossRefADSGoogle Scholar

Copyright information

© Springer Science+Business Media, LLC. 2009

Authors and Affiliations

  1. 1.Materials and Engineering Research InstituteSheffield Hallam UniversitySheffieldUK

Personalised recommendations