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arXiv:quant-ph/0008130 · Physical Review A

Infrared generation in low-dimensional semiconductor heterostructures via quantum coherence

Alexey A. Belyanin, Federico Capasso, Vitaly V. Kocharovsky, Vl. V. Kocharovsky, Marlan O. Scully

Published Apr 11, 2001• 81 citations

Abstract

A scheme for infrared generation without population inversion between subbands in quantum-well and quantum-dot lasers is presented. The scheme is based on the resonant nonlinear mixing of the optical laser fields on the two interband transitions that are generated in the same active region and that serve as the coherent drive for the infrared field. This mechanism for frequency down-conversion does not rely upon any ad hoc assumptions of long-lived coherences in the semiconductor active medium, and it should work efficiently at room temperature with injection current pumping. For optimized waveguide and cavity parameters, the intrinsic efficiency of the down-conversion process can reach the limiting quantum value corresponding to one infrared photon per one optical photon. Due to the parametric nature of infrared generation, the proposed inversionless scheme is especially promising for long-wavelength (far-infrared) operation.

DOI: 10.1103/physreva.63.053803

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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.

A method is suggested of efficient mid- to far-infrared (ir) pulse amplification via driving optical pulse energy conversion in waveguiding quantum well (QW) heterostructures at room temperature. It is based on the optical pulse creating transient population inversion at a long-wavelength transition in the three-level scheme formed by QW levels of dimensional quantization. As a result, efficient amplification of a weak mid- to far-ir pulse, propagating simultaneously with the driving one, becomes possible. A waveguide and QW heterostructure design that is optimal for optical-long-wavelength pulse conversion is proposed and shown to be much simpler than that used in quantum cascade lasers. For the typical input peak power of a picosecond driving pulse and mid- to far-ir pulse of $\ensuremath{\sim}100\phantom{\rule{0.3em}{0ex}}\mathrm{W}$ and

100--0.1\phantom{\rule{0.3em}{0ex}}\mathrm{mW}

, respectively, the present scheme is able to produce output ir pulses with peak powers of at least several tens of watts or several tens of milliwatts in the mid- or far-ir range, respectively, i.e., to convert an appreciable part of the optical pulse energy into the mid-ir signal.

A model of inversionless gain on a transition between quasi-discrete excited levels of a quantum system is proposed that minimizes the absorption of a coherent optical pump beam due to the finite lifetimes of the corresponding states. A quantum-dot system with transition frequency between quasi-discrete levels lying in the mid-infrared (mid-IR) range is used as an example to determine an optimal pump frequency at which the pump absorption rate is minimized and to calculate the gain for a mid-IR field. The proposed model system can be considered as a prototype for creating highly efficient mid- and far-IR quantum-dot amplifiers and lasers operating on transitions between quasi-discrete levels at room temperature.

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Coherent transitions of charge carriers between the conduction and valence bands of a semiconductor medium are essential for the operation of a semiconductor laser. In this paper, we study how such interband coherence can be set up by an injection current and a coherent pump-field. In the absence of the pump-field, the injection current is the only source to establish the interband coherence in a semiconductor laser system. A laser threshold is obtained, which shows that a strongly coupled high-Q microcavity has a low threshold value. However, when an external pump-field serving as another mechanism to create the interband coherence is applied, the threshold value of the injection current can be lowered and it vanishes for sufficiently strong field. Besides, if the pump-field exceeds a threshold value, it is even possible to achieve a bistability in the inversionless region. Some fundamental macroscopic properties, including polarization, absorption and dispersion for the semicoductor system, are also obtained analytically.