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US 5,818,066 AGranted
Optoelectronic quantum well device having an optical resonant cavity and sustaining inter subband transitions
AssigneeThomson-CSF
InventorJean-Yves Duboz
Life of this patent
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Abstract
An optoelectronic quantum well device comprises a stack of layers that have different gap widths and constitute quantum wells possessing, in the conduction band, at least two permitted energy levels, this stack of layers being included between two reflection means. The device also comprises a diffraction grating between one of the mirrors and the stack of layers.
Claims7
An optoelectronic quantum well device comprising:
- a stack of semiconducting layers that have different bandgap energies and constitute quantum wells possessing, in the conduction band, at least two permitted energy levels capable of sustaining an inter-subband transition of a carrier transiting from one of said energy levels to the other, thereby to provide absorption or emission of photons within a selected frequency band corresponding to the difference in said energy levels with relatively little absorption or emission outside said selected frequency band,
- a diffraction grating adjacent to said stack of layers, to diffract incident light so as to provide an electric field component of said incident light perpendicular to said stack of layers thereby to induce said inter-subband transition in dependence on said perpendicular electric field component, and
- opposed reflectors sandwiching said diffraction grating and said stack of layers to form an optical cavity, thereby to enhance said absorption or emission of photons within said frequency band.
An optoelectronic quantum well device comprising:
- a stack of semiconducting layers that have different bandgap energies and constitute quantum wells possessing, in the conduction band, at least two permitted energy levels capable of sustaining an inter-subband transition of a carrier transiting from one of said energy levels to the other, thereby to provide absorption or emission of photons within a selected frequency band corresponding to the difference in said energy levels with relatively little absorption or emission outside said selected frequency band, and
- opposed reflectors sandwiching said stack of layers to form an optical cavity, thereby to enhance said absorption or emission of photons within said frequency band, wherein one of said reflectors has a plane shape, while other said reflector has relief features constituting a diffraction grating, said diffraction grating adjacent to said stack of layers, to diffract incident light so as to provide an electric field component of said incident light perpendicular to said stack of layers thereby to induce said inter-subband transition in dependence on said perpendicular electric field component.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.