Quantum effects in submillimetre hot hole semiconductor lasers

The hole dynamics and emission processes in degenerate band semiconductors in strong crossedE B fields were studied both theoretically and experimentally. The Luttinger effective mass Hamiltonian was used to study the Landau level energy spectrum in anisotropic valence bands of Ge. The dependence of the energy spectrum onE,H fields orientation is analysed. The role of quantum effects, such as interaction and mixing of light and heavy hole states in the scattering process and Landau level population is studied. The results of experimental studies of stimulated emission spectra for intersub-band and cyclotron transitions as well as their dependence onE,H field orientation are presented, the experimental data being in good agreement with the quantum model calculations.