Density matrix theory of transport and gain in quantum cascade lasers in a magnetic field

Abstract

A density matrix theory of electron transport and optical gain in quantum cascade lasers in an external magnetic field is formulated. Starting from the general quantum kinetic treatment, we describe the intra- and inter-period electron dynamics at the non-Markovian, Markovian and Boltzmann approximation levels. Interactions of electrons with longitudinal optical phonons and classical light field are included in the present description. The non-Markovian calculation for a prototype structure reveals significantly different gain spectra in terms of linewidth and additional polaronic features in comparison to the Markovian and Boltzmann ones. Despite strongly opposed interpretations of the origin of the transport processes in the non-Markovian or Markovian and the Boltzmann approaches, they yield comparable values of the current densities.

27 pages, 12 figures, to be submitted to Physical Review B

References in corpus (2)

• Quantum-mechanical wavepacket transport in quantum cascade laser structures
• Self-Consistent Theory of the Gain Linewidth for Quantum Cascade Lasers

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• Dynamical Transition for a class of integrable models coupled to a bath
• Microscopic model for intersubband gain from electrically pumped quantum-dot structures