544 research outputs found
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 -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
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