The effects of inhomogeneous broadening on intersubband difference frequency generation

Summary form only given. Intersubband systems exhibit nonlinearities that can be hundreds of times larger than that of conventional materials. This has made them attractive candidates for nonlinear frequency conversion and other applications. Early work on intersubband nonlinearities focused on GaAs/AlGaAs quantum wells. Because of the small conduction band offset of this material system, it is only suitable to resonantly enhance nonlinear interactions of 5 /spl mu/m wavelength or longer. Thus most studies of the nonlinear optical properties of intersubband transitions (ISBT) have used CO/sub 2/ lasers.