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Optics Letters

Semiconductor lasers without population inversion

Ataç İmamoğlu, Rajeev J. Ram

Published Nov 1, 1994• 185 citations
Publisher

Abstract

We propose a new scheme for lasing without population inversion that utilizes interferences in double-quantum-well intersubband transitions. In contrast to the previous inversionless laser schemes based on atomic systems, the new proposal permits us to use band-gap engineering to choose the subband energies, coupling strengths, and decay rates, as desired, and permits us to create a laser system that does not require population inversion. We present detailed calculations on a specific scheme and discuss possible extensions.

DOI
10.1364/ol.19.001744

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We propose a new scheme for lasing without population inversion that utilizes interferences in double-quantum-well intersubband transitions. In contrast to the previous inversionless laser schemes based on atomic systems, the new proposal permits us to use band-gap engineering to choose the subband energies, coupling strengths, and decay rates, as desired, and permits us to create a laser system that does not require population inversion. We present detailed calculations on a specific scheme and discuss possible extensions.
We propose a new class of intersubband lasers and amplifiers that achieve net gain without population inversion. The laser scheme is based on a unipolar semiconductor double quantum- well structure where gain occurs at a transition between conduction band subbands. In order to achieve net gain without inversion, we utilize Fano-type interferences. The semiconductor laser scheme that we are considering is analogous to the atomic lambda system that has been extensively analyzed in the context of electromagnetically induced transparency and lasing without inversion. A coherent coupling field however, is not required in the present scheme. The electronic coherence necessary for Fano-type interferences is established by resonant tunneling. For nonlinear optics applications, the asymmetry of the structure allows for (chi) (2) processes and therefore higher conversion efficiency or parametric gain.
We propose and study resonant ladder schemes of inversionless lasing on a fast-decaying transition when the population inversion is not possible or very difficult to achieve. The driving field on a neighboring, slowly decaying transition is not imposed externally, but is self generated in the same active medium. Inversionless lasing in such schemes avoids the problem of driving-field absorption and leads to considerable reduction in the required pumping rate. Applications of such schemes include inversionless ultraviolet and soft x-ray lasing in gas lasers and inversionless generation of coherent mid/far-infrared emission on intersubband (interlevel) transitions in multiple quantum-well or quantum-dot laser diodes.
This review paper is devoted to amplification and lasing without population inversion involving atomic transitions in gas media. We start by discussing the main motivation in inversionless lasing research, namely, the generation of short-wavelength laser light. Then, we review the basic physics of inversionless lasing in two-level and, eventually, in three- and multilevel atomic configurations. Finally, we summarize the current state of the art of LWI experiments and indicate the main difficulties with respect to short-wavelength laser generation.
In standard lasers, light amplification requires population inversion between an upper and a lower state to break the reciprocity between absorption and stimulated emission. However, in a medium prepared in a specific superposition state, quantum interference may fully suppress absorption while leaving stimulated emission intact, opening the possibility of lasing without inversion (LWI) [1] . Conventional LWI schemes generally strive to maintain a specific phase relationship between the lower-lying states that carry most of the population. We present a scheme [2] , [3] , that does not follow this tradition. It uses only the natural dynamics of a multi-level quantum system and requires no coherence between the excited and the lower electronic states; effectively, LWI comes "for free".