Room temperature intra-band lasing in quantum dot arrays placed in high photon density cavities—a theoretical study

Abstract

Intersubband (intra-band) transitions are very attractive forlong wavelength lasers due to the high degree of tailoring possible in the emission spectra. In general, if intra-band population inversion is to be created in a conduction band quantum well by carrier injection at the barrier energy, it is necessary that the electron non-radiative intra-band energy relaxation times are long. Additionally, the extraction time for the electron from the lower state should be short. In a bipolar device studied here, this means the bandedge electron-hole recombination times should be short.The use of sub-two-dimensional (2D) structures (quantum dots) allows us to increase the intra-band energy relaxation time from about a picosecond for bulk or quasi-2D systems to several hundred picoseconds at room temperatures. Also, by placing these structures in a cavity with a high photon number, it is possible to decrease the bandedge electron-hole recombination times through stimulated emission. Our studies show that strong population inversion and lasing under d.c. conditions is possible at room temperature in such systems.