Abstract
The possibility of forming a photon avalanche in type-I heterostructures with deep quantum wells is investigated. For the heterostructure energy-level diagram considered here, the threshold intensities of IR light that cause an avalanche are about 105 W/cm2. It is shown that the photon-avalanche mechanism can be used to generate nonequilibrium electron-hole pairs with weak IR light having a photon energy a factor of 4-5 less than the band gap in the barrier region. The energies to switch the system between states with strong and weak absorption of the pump light range from tenths to a few picojoules per square micrometer.
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