Efficient four-wave mixing of a coupled double quantum-well nanostructure

We propose an efficient four-wave mixing (FWM) scheme in an asymmetric semiconductor double quantum-well (SDQW) structure based on intersubband transitions, and obtain the corresponding explicit analytical expressions for the input probe and generated FWM pulsed fields by use of the coupled Schrodinger-Maxwell approach. Under the resonant and phase-rnatched conditions, the FWM efficiency versus several variables is also discussed in details and the maximum FWM efficiency of the system under study is greater than 25%. Such a semiconductor system is much more practical than its atomic counterpart because of its flexible design and the controllable interference strength. This nonlinear optical process in the SDQW solid-state material can be used for efficiently generating coherent short-wavelength radiation. (C) 2007 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.