Microscopic modeling of intersubband resonances in InAs/AlSb quantum wells

Linear absorption spectra from intersubband resonance in InAs/AlSb quantum wells are analyzed theoretically using the intersubband semiconductor Bloch equation approach. Our model goes beyond the Hartree–Fock approximation and treats particle–particle correlations under the second Born approximation. Electron–electron and longitudinal optical phonon scatterings from such a treatment describe intrinsic line broadening to the intersubband resonance. Electron subbands are determined self-consistently with a spurious-state-free 8-band k·p Hamiltonian under the envelope function approximation. To compare with experimental measurements, we also included line broadening due to electron-interface roughness scattering. Excellent agreement was achieved for temperature-dependent absorption spectra in the mid-infrared frequency range, after taking into careful account the interplay of material parameters, nonparabolicity in bandstructure, and many-body effects.