Towards quantum well hot hole lasers

Abstract

It should be possible to improve hot-hole laser performance by moving from bulk materials to a quantum well structure. The extra design parameters enable us to alter the band structure by changing the crystal orientation of the growth direction; to use the well width to shift the subband offsets, enabling the effect of the LO phonon scattering cut-off to be controlled; and to use modulation doping to ensure a high hole concentration to increase the gain without the dopants being present in the gain region. We present the first simulations of THz quantum well hot-hole lasers that can produce inversion and optical gain.