Physics Commons^™

Terahertz Gain In A Sige/Si Quantum Staircase Utilizing The Heavy-Hole Inverted Effective Mass, Richard A. Soref, Greg Sun

Physics Faculty Publications

Modeling and design studies show that a strain-balanced Si_1−xGe_x/Si superlattice onSi_1−yGe_y-buffered Si can be engineered to give an inverted effective mass HH2 subband adjacent to HH1, thereby enabling a 77 K edge-emitting electrically pumped p–i–pquantum staircase laser for THz emission at energies below the 37 meV Ge–Ge optical phonon energy. Analysis of hole-phonon scattering, lifetimes, matrix elements, and hole populations indicates that a gain of 450 cm⁻¹ will be feasible at f = 7.3 THz during 1.7 kA/cm² current injection.