Density-matrix theory of the optical dynamics and transport in quantum cascade structures: The role of coherence

Abstract

The impact of coherence on the nonlinear optical response and stationary transport is studied in quantum cascade laser structures. Nonequilibrium effects such as pump-probe signals, the spatio-temporally resolved electron density evolution, and the subband population dynamics (Rabi flopping) as well as the stationary current characteristics are investigated within a microscopic density-matrix approach. Focusing on the stationary current and the recently observed gain oscillations, it is found that the inclusion of coherence leads to observable coherent effects in opposite parameter regimes regarding the relation between the level broadening and the tunnel coupling across the main injection barrier. This shows that coherence plays a complementary role in stationary transport and nonlinear optical dynamics in the sense that it leads to measurable effects in opposite regimes. For this reason, a fully coherent consideration of such nonequilibrium structures is necessary to describe the combined optical and transport properties

14 pages, 11 figures; final version

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• Theory of absorption lineshape in monolayers of transition metal dichalcogenides
• Density Matrix Modeling of Quantum Cascade Lasers without an Artificially Localized Basis: A Generalized Scattering Approach
• Simulating terahertz quantum cascade lasers: Trends from samples from different labs
• Nonequilibrium thermodynamics of interacting tunneling transport: variational grand potential, density-functional formulation, and nature of steady-state forces
• Quantum simulating the electron transport in quantum cascade laser structures
• Density-matrix model for photon-driven transport in quantum cascade lasers
• Numerically efficient density-matrix technique for modeling electronic transport in midinfrared quantum cascade lasers
• Partially coherent electron transport in terahertz quantum cascade lasers based on a Markovian master equation for the density matrix