WAVEGUIDE AND SURFACE PLASMON COUPLED INFRARED DEVICES USING SEMICONDUCTOR QUANTUM WELLS

Abstract
In this paper we propose and present detailed calculations on a new method for using the intersubband transition in modulation doped semiconductor quantum wells grown from Al_xGa_1-xAs and GaAs in infra red devices (modulators and detectors) working at 10 um wavelength. The quantum wells are embedded near the the surface of a thick AlAs layer (1-9 microns) and capped by a metal electrode and coupling to the intersubband transition is mediated by either a "leaky" guided mode or a surface plasmon. Our calculations show that coupling of radiation to intersubband transitions can be strong under such circumstances.