THz Radiation Source Through Periodically Modulated Structures
Abstract
We have concentrated our activities in the present period to demonstrate the generation of a plasmon instability which could lead to coherent plasmon oscillations in quantum well structures due to population inversion in the carrier distribution. Population inversion is needed to develop the plasma instability. We use a concept where the inversion is achieved by using an energetically selective extraction and injection of carriers into a confined active region consisting of a combination of quantum wells. We have designed, build, and characterized a first generation of structures which show some first evidence for plasma instability. The measured I-V characteristics confirm the high quality of these samples and cannot be explained consistently with a transfer matrix calculation. We find that deviations from the expected tunneling behavior are found close to the condition of population inversion in the carrier distribution in sample g301. Weak THz emission is observed which might have its origin in a plasma instability process. However at present we cannot distinguish the emission process from radiative subband transitions.
Document Details
- Document Type
- Technical Report
- Publication Date
- Jun 16, 1998
- Accession Number
- ADA348494
Entities
People
- C. Rauch
- Erich Gornik
- G. Strasser
- K. Unterrainer
- W. Boxleitner