Tailoring of optical phonon modes in nanoscale semiconductor structures: Role of interface-optical phonons in quantum-well lasers

This paper discusses the concept of enhancing semiconductor laser performance through tailoring of scattering rates of confined polar-optical phonons. Studies of optically pumped intersubband scattering in coupled quantum-well lasers have demonstrated that interface-phonon-assisted transitions are important in such structures; furthermore, simple analytical expressions have been derived that indicate the importance of interface-phonon scattering in quantum-well lasers. These calculations reveal that the interface-phonon-assisted transitions are dominant for small quantum well dimensions of approximately 40 angstroms; such dimensions are typical of novel lasers including both the unipolar quantum cascade laser and the tunneling injection laser. Recent numerical calculations have confirmed these effects and have extended them to indicate how confined and interface phonons also affect critical laser properties such as optical gain. The application of confined phonon effects to intersubband lasers is one of the most important applications of confined-phonon physics to the present time.