Electrically injected cavity polaritons

We have realised a semiconductor quantum structure that produces electroluminescence while operating in the light-matter strong coupling regime. The mid-infrared light emitting device is composed of a quantum cascade structure embedded in a planar microcavity, based on the GaAs/AlGaAs material system. At zero bias, the structure is characterised using reflectivity measurements which show, up to room temperature, a wide polariton anticrossing between an intersubband transition and the resonant cavity photon mode. Under electrical injection the spectral features of the emitted light change drastically, as electrons are resonantly injected in a reduced part of the polariton branches. Our experiment demonstrates that electrons can be selectively injected into polariton states up to room temperature.Comment: 10 pages, 4 figure

Radiative quantum efficiency in an InAs/AlSb intersubband transition

The quantum efficiency of an electroluminescent intersubband emitter based on InAs/AlSb has been measured as a function of the magnetic field up to 20T. Two series of oscillations periodic in 1/B are observed, corresponding to the elastic and inelastic scattering of electrons of the upper state of the radiative transitions. Experimental results are accurately reproduced by a calculation of the excited state lifetime as a function of the applied magnetic field. The interpretation of these data gives an exact measure of the relative weight of the scattering mechanisms and allows the extraction of material parameters such as the energy dependent electron effective mass and the optical phonon energy.Comment: 4 pages, 5 figure

Gain without inversion in a biased superlattice

Intersubband transitions in a superlattice under homogeneous electric field is studied within the tight-binding approximation. Since the levels are equi-populated, the non-zero response appears beyond the Born approximation. Calculations are performed in the resonant approximation with scattering processes exactly taken into account. The absorption coefficient is equal zero for the resonant excitation while a negative absorption (gain without inversion) takes place below the resonance. A detectable gain in the THz spectral region is obtained for the low-doped $GaAs$-based superlattice and spectral dependencies are analyzed taking into account the interplay between homogeneous and inhomogeneous mechanisms of broadening.Comment: 6 pages, 4 figure

Nonequilibrium Green's function theory for transport and gain properties of quantum cascade structures

The transport and gain properties of quantum cascade (QC) structures are investigated using a nonequilibrium Green's function (NGF) theory which includes quantum effects beyond a Boltzmann transport description. In the NGF theory, we include interface roughness, impurity, and electron-phonon scattering processes within a self-consistent Born approximation, and electron-electron scattering in a mean-field approximation. With this theory we obtain a description of the nonequilibrium stationary state of QC structures under an applied bias, and hence we determine transport properties, such as the current-voltage characteristic of these structures. We define two contributions to the current, one contribution driven by the scattering-free part of the Hamiltonian, and the other driven by the scattering Hamiltonian. We find that the dominant part of the current in these structures, in contrast to simple superlattice structures, is governed mainly by the scattering Hamiltonian. In addition, by considering the linear response of the stationary state of the structure to an applied optical field, we determine the linear susceptibility, and hence the gain or absorption spectra of the structure. A comparison of the spectra obtained from the more rigorous NGF theory with simpler models shows that the spectra tend to be offset to higher values in the simpler theories.Comment: 44 pages, 16 figures, appearing in Physical Review B Dec 200

Gain in quantum cascade lasers and superlattices: A quantum transport theory

Gain in current-driven semiconductor heterostructure devices is calculated within the theory of nonequilibrium Green functions. In order to treat the nonequilibrium distribution self-consistently the full two-time structure of the theory is employed without relying on any sort of Kadanoff-Baym Ansatz. The results are independent of the choice of the electromagnetic field if the variation of the self-energy is taken into account. Excellent quantitative agreement is obtained with the experimental gain spectrum of a quantum cascade laser. Calculations for semiconductor superlattices show that the simple 2-time miniband transport model gives reliable results for large miniband widths at room temperatureComment: 8 Pages, 4 Figures directly included, to appear in Physical Review