Physical Model and Scattering Dynamics Engineering for Intersubband Lasers and Photodetectors

A fully quantum-mechanical model for electron transport in quantum devices, based on a self-consistent solution of the coupled rate equations, was applied to design of novel intersubband optically pumped or quantum cascade lasers and quantum-well infrared photodetectors. The important macroscopic parameters like I-V curves, laser gain, threshold current density, responsivity and capture probability can be estimated directly from this first-principles calculation. The presentation will review the method and describe its application to infrared and terahertz devices based on various semiconductor heterostructure systems