Quantum model of microcavity intersubband electroluminescent devices

TL;DR

This paper develops a quantum theoretical model for intersubband electroluminescence in microcavity quantum wells, analyzing transport, optical properties, and efficiency enhancement across coupling regimes.

Contribution

It introduces a novel quantum model that combines carrier tunneling, cavity field dynamics, and polarization effects for intersubband devices.

Findings

Quantum efficiency improves from weak to strong coupling regimes.

The model accurately describes electronic transport and optical responses.

Non-radiative relaxation and Pauli blocking are incorporated into the analysis.

Abstract

We present a quantum theoretical analysis of the electroluminescence from an intersubband transition of a quantum well structure embedded in a planar microcavity. By using a cluster factorization method, we have derived a closed set of dynamical equations for the quantum well carrier and cavity photon occupation numbers, the correlation between the cavity field and the intersubband polarization, as well as polarization-polarization contributions. In order to model the electrical excitation, we have considered electron population tunneling from an injector and into an extractor contact. The tunneling rates have been obtained by considering the bare electronic states in the quantum well and the limit of validity of this approximation (broad-band injection) are discussed in detail. We apply the present quantum model to provide a comprehensive description of the electronic transport and optical properties of an intersubband microcavity light emitting diode, accounting for non-radiative carrier relaxation and Pauli blocking. We study the enhancement of the electroluminescence quantum efficiency passing from the weak to the strong polariton coupling regime.