Electron Dynamics in Silicon-Germanium Terahertz Quantum Fountain Structures

Asymmetric quantum well systems are excellent candidates to realize semiconductor light emitters at far-infrared wavelengths not covered by other gain media. Group-IV semiconductor heterostructures can be grown on silicon substrates, and their dipole-active intersubband transitions could be used to generate light from devices integrated with silicon electronic circuits. Here, we have realized an optically pumped emitter structure based on a three-level Ge/Si0.18Ge0.82 asymmetric coupled quantum well design. Optical pumping was performed with a tunable free-electron laser emitting at photon energies of 25 and 41 meV, corresponding to the energies of the first two intersubband transitions 0 -> 1 and 0 -> 2 as measured by Fourier-transform spectroscopy. We have studied with a synchronized terahertz time domain spectroscopy probe the relaxation dynamics after pumping, and we have interpreted the resulting relaxation times (in the range 60 to 110 ps) in the framework of an out-of-equilibrium model of the intersubband electron-phonon dynamics. The spectral changes in the probe pulse transmitted at pump-probe coincidence were monitored in the range 0.7-2.9 THz for different samples and pump intensity and showed indication of both free carrier absorption increase and bleaching of the 1 -> 2 transition. The quantification from data and models of the free carrier losses and of the bleaching efficiency allowed us to predict the conditions for population inversion and to determine a threshold pump power density for lasing around 500 kW/cm(2) in our device. The ensemble of our results shows that optical pumping of germanium quantum wells is a promising route toward silicon integrated far-infrared emitters.