Francesca Carosella

Free-carrier absorption in quantum cascade structures

We show that the free-carrier absorption in quantum cascade lasers (QCLs) is very small and radically different from the classical Drude result due to the orthogonality between the direction of the carrier free motion and the electric field of the laser emission. A quantum mechanical calculation of the free-carrier absorption and intersubband oblique absorption induced by interface defects, Coulombic impurities, and optical phonon absorption/emission is presented for QCLs with a double-quantum-well design. The interaction between the electrons and the optical phonons dominates at room temperature.

Unraveling of free-carrier absorption for terahertz radiation in heterostructures

The relation between free-carrier absorption and intersubband transitions in semiconductor heterostructures is resolved by comparing a sequence of structures. Our numerical and analytical results show how free-carrier absorption evolves from the intersubband transitions in the limit of infinite number of wells with vanishing barrier width. It is explicitly shown that the integral of the absorption over frequency matches the value obtained by he f-sum rule. This shows that a proper treatment of intersubband transitions is fully sufficient to simulate the entire electronic absorption in heterostructure THz devices.

Relevance of intra- and inter-subband scattering on the absorption in heterostructures

We analyze the absorption lineshape for inter-subband transitions in disordered quasi two-dimensional heterostructures by an exact calculation. The intra-subband scatterings control the central peak, while the tails of the absorption line are dominated by the inter-subband scattering terms. Our numerical study quantitatively assesses the magnitude of the free carrier absorption. The accuracy of different models currently used for gain/absorption is discussed.

Free carrier absorption and inter-subband transitions in imperfect heterostructures

We present the results of a quantum mechanical modelling of the free carrier absorption (FCA) in semiconductor heterolayers. Elastic and inelastic scatterers are considered with emphasis on the interface defects (optical phonons) contributions to the induced photon absorption for elastic (inelastic) scatterers. Various approaches to FCA are also presented (perturbation, Greens function technique). The connection between inter-subband absorption and FCA is thoroughly discussed. The absorption lineshape and its modification by suitable doping is presented.

Importance of the localization for inter-subband scattering rates in quasi two-dimensional structures

The inter-subband scattering in quasi two-dimensional heterostructures is critically examined in the case of cascade structures with a double well design. We show that when two kinds of elastic scatterers are present, the scattering frequencies may markedly differ from the one evaluated for plane wave states for the in-plane motion at the Born approximation. We argue that this feature results from the disorder-induced spatial localization of the eigenstates in the layer plane. The scatterer location dependence of the scattering frequencies is also discussed. At low concentration the in-plane localization is found to increase the inter-subband scattering.

Free-carrier absorption in asymmetric double quantum well structures due to static scatterers in the in-plane polarization

We report on the computation of the free carrier absorption induced by static scatterers in cascade structures when the electromagnetic wave propagates along the growth axis. We find that a Drude-like tail exists for this polarization. The absorption is found larger than when the wave propagates in the layer plane. Also intra-subband scattering is found more efficient than inter-subband scattering. The alloy scattering is found to be particularly efficient.

One-dimensional massless Dirac bands in semiconductor superlattices

Semiconductor superlattices may display dispersions that are degenerate either at the zone center or zone boundary [G. Bastard, Wave Mechanics Applied to Semiconductor Heterostructures, Monographies de Physique (Les Editions de Physique, Les Ulis, 1988); C. Sirtori, F. Capasso, D. L. Sivco, and A. Y. Cho, Appl. Phys. Lett. 64, 2982 (1994)]. We show that they are linear upon the wave vector in the vicinity of the crossing point. This establishes a realisation of massless Dirac bands within semiconductor materials. We show that the eigenstates and the corresponding Wannier functions of these superlattices have peculiar symmetry properties. We discuss the stability of the properties of such superlattices versus the electron in-plane motion. As a distinct fingerprint, the inter-sub-band magnetoabsorption spectrum for such superlattices is discussed. (Less)

Magnetotransport in quantum cascade detectors: analyzing the current under illumination.

Photocurrent measurements have been performed on a quantum cascade detector structure under strong magnetic field applied parallel to the growth axis. The photocurrent shows oscillations as a function of B. In order to describe that behavior, we have developed a rate equation model. The interpretation of the experimental data supports the idea that an elastic scattering contribution plays a central role in the behavior of those structures. We present a calculation of electron lifetime versus magnetic field which suggests that impurities scattering in the active region is the limiting factor. These experiments lead to a better understanding of these complex structures and give key parameters to optimize them further.

Effects of inter-subband couplings on bound and extended states of terahertz cascade structures

We theoretically analyze the effect of inter-subband couplings on the eigenstates of a terahertz heterostructure in the presence of coulombic donors. We find that the inter-subband electron-donor interaction causes a drastic reorganization of the eigenenergies and a strong admixture between the subbands that decisively influences the optical absorption spectrum of the structure. These results illustrate the importance of the inter-subband couplings in the formulation of the eigenstates of imperfect terahertz heterostructures.

Absorption in disordered heterostructures: Contributions from intra- and inter-subband scattering and impact of localised states

We developed a model for the exact calculation of the absorption spectrum in disordered heterostructures allowing the understanding of the lineshape in terms of the contributions from intra-subband and inter-subband scatterings. A dopant engineering of the inter-subband lineshape is proposed.