Role of Terahertz Radiation on Optical Properties of Laser Pulse in a Double Coupled Quantum Well Nanostructure

Abstract

The transient and steady-state behavior of the absorption and the dispersion of a probe pulse laser field propagating through an InGaAs\InP double coupled quantum well are studied. The effect of terahertz radiation excitation, electron tunnelling and incoherent pumping on the optical properties of the probe field is discussed. In the terahertz (30~300 μm or 1~10 THz) intersubband transition, the incoming photon energy is (4~41 mev) and maybe in the order of electron thermal broadening (KT~6 meV-25 meV for 77 K-300 K). Therefore in the conventional structure, the incoming photon can directly excite the ground state electrons to higher energy levels and this process inhabits the correct optical switching in terahertz applications. We show that the group velocity of a light pulse can be controlled from superluminal to subluminal or vice versa by controlling the rates of incoherent pumping field and tunnelling between the quantum wells. The required switching time is calculated and we find it between 3 to 26 picoseconds.