Partially coherent electron transport in terahertz quantum cascade lasers based on a Markovian master equation for the density matrix

Jonasson, O.; Karimi, F.; Knezevic, I.

doi:10.1007/s10825-016-0869-3

Partially coherent electron transport in terahertz quantum cascade lasers based on a Markovian master equation for the density matrix

Journal Article · Mon Aug 01 00:00:00 EDT 2016 · Journal of Computational Electronics

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1007/s10825-016-0869-3· OSTI ID:1434259

^[1]; Karimi, F. ^[2]; ^[2]

Univ. of Wisconsin-Madison, Madison, WI (United States); University of Wisconsin - Madison
Univ. of Wisconsin-Madison, Madison, WI (United States)

We derive a Markovian master equation for the single-electron density matrix, applicable to quantum cascade lasers (QCLs). The equation conserves the positivity of the density matrix, includes off-diagonal elements (coherences) as well as in-plane dynamics, and accounts for electron scattering with phonons and impurities. We use the model to simulate a terahertz-frequency QCL, and compare the results with both experiment and simulation via nonequilibrium Green's functions (NEGF). We obtain very good agreement with both experiment and NEGF when the QCL is biased for optimal lasing. For the considered device, we show that the magnitude of coherences can be a significant fraction of the diagonal matrix elements, which demonstrates their importance when describing THz QCLs. We show that the in-plane energy distribution can deviate far from a heated Maxwellian distribution, which suggests that the assumption of thermalized subbands in simplified density-matrix models is inadequate. As a result, we also show that the current density and subband occupations relax towards their steady-state values on very different time scales.

View Accepted Manuscript (DOE)

Research Organization:: Univ. of Wisconsin-Madison, Madison, WI (United States)

Sponsoring Organization:: USDOE Office of Science (SC), Basic Energy Sciences (BES) (SC-22). Materials Sciences & Engineering Division

Contributing Organization:: University of Wisconsin-Madison

Grant/Contract Number:: SC0008712

OSTI ID:: 1434259

Journal Information:: Journal of Computational Electronics, Journal Name: Journal of Computational Electronics Journal Issue: 4 Vol. 15; ISSN 1569-8025

Publisher:: SpringerCopyright Statement

Country of Publication:: United States

Language:: English

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Density matrix superoperator for periodic quantum systems and its application to quantum cascade laser structures Demić, Aleksandar; Ikonić, Zoran; Kelsall, Robert W. AIP Advances, Vol. 9, Issue 9 https://doi.org/10.1063/1.5095246	journal	September 2019

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77 NANOSCIENCE AND NANOTECHNOLOGY
Density matrix
Dissipation
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QCL
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Superlattice
Terahertz

Partially coherent electron transport in terahertz quantum cascade lasers based on a Markovian master equation for the density matrix

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