Modeling bound-to-continuum terahertz quantum cascade lasers: The role of Coulomb interactions

Abstract

Based on an ensemble Monte Carlo analysis, we show that Coulomb interactions play a dominant role in bound-to-continuum terahertz quantum cascade lasers and thus require careful modeling. Coulomb interactions enter our simulation in the form of space charge effects as well as Coulomb scattering events. By comparison to a full many-subband Coulomb screening model, we show that simplified approaches produce considerable deviations for such structures. Also the spin dependence of electron-electron scattering has to be adequately considered. Moreover, we demonstrate that iterative Schrödinger-Poisson and carrier transport simulations are necessary to correctly account for space charge effects.

References in corpus (5)

• Design and Simulation of THz Quantum Cascade Lasers
• Accuracy of transfer matrix approaches for solving the effective mass Schrödinger equation
• Temperature dependence of the gain profile for THz quantum cascade lasers
• Monte-Carlo-based spectral gain analysis for THz quantum cascade lasers
• Comparative analysis of resonant phonon THz quantum cascade lasers

Cited by in corpus (3)

• Modeling techniques for quantum cascade lasers
• Density matrix Monte Carlo modeling of quantum cascade lasers
• Photon-induced carrier transport in high efficiency midinfrared quantum cascade lasers