Population inversion and IR amplification induced by intersubband electron transitions and resonant Auger processes in quantum wells

A mechanism for electron population inversion and mid-IR amplification is proposed for the case of the current or optical injection of electron-hole pairs into the undoped region of a heterojunction with quantum wells. The presence of an upper long-lived size-quantization level and resonant Auger recombination in the well are crucial features of the mechanism. A long electron lifetime at the upper level or a relatively low probability of electron scattering to the other subbands is achieved by choosing the shape of the well and its parameters in such a way as to provide weak overlap between the upper level and two lower level electronic wave functions. Resonant Auger recombination plays a positive role. It stabilizes the electron and hole concentrations at lower levels and makes a substantial contribution to the excitation of the upper electronic level and the population inversion. The degree of population inversion and the gain coefficient are estimated.