Coherent Bloch Oscillations in Superlattices Excited by 1.55-micrometer fs-Laserpulses

Abstract

The aim of this project is the investigation of coherent Bloch oscillations in superlattices excited by fs optical pulses in the 1.55 microns wavelength range. One potential application of Bloch oscillations is the electromagnetic radiation emitted from this system tunable from several hundred GHz to some THz by changing the voltage applied to the superlattice. The investigations were performed by fs optical pump-probe spectroscopy in strain-balanced InGaAs(P) based heterostructures grown by MOVPE. Bloch oscillations have been observed for the first time in ternary InGaAs/InGaAs superlattices at low lattice temperatures. The dephasing time of the oscillations was found to be only a factor of 3 smaller compared to the mature GaAs/AlGaAs material system grown by MBE. It could be observed that the oscillation frequency changes in time. The analysis of this effect has lead to important insights into the transport and scattering dynamics in this material on the sub-picosecond time scale. It was found that scattering with thermally populated LO phonons is a limiting factor for the room temperature operation Bloch oscillations. The obtained results give important hints for the further optimization of the superlattices concerning material composition and device design.

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Document Details

Document Type
Technical Report
Publication Date
Feb 01, 1999
Accession Number
ADA362349

Entities

People

  • Heinrich Kurz
  • Michael Foerst
  • Thomas Dekorsy

Tags

Communities of Interest

  • Advanced Electronics

DTIC Thesaurus Topics

  • Crystal Lattices
  • Electric Fields
  • Electromagnetic Radiation
  • Electronics
  • Femtosecond Time
  • Frequency Shift
  • Laser Pulses
  • Optical Properties
  • Oscillation
  • Picosecond Time
  • Quantum Electronics
  • Quantum Wells
  • Radiation
  • Scattering
  • Semiconductors
  • Spectroscopy
  • Wave Mixing

Fields of Study

  • Materials science

Readers

  • Quantum Dot Semiconductor Device Photonics and Graphene Optoelectronic Materials and THz Physics.
  • Semiconductor Device Technology