Intersubband mid-infrared electroluminescent semiconductor devices

摘要

A semiconductor laser and light emitting device is defined. The device comprises an electron injector and an active region adjacent to the electron injector. The active region includes at least one deep quantum well with barrier layers adjacent to either side of the quantum well or wells such that electrons injected from the electron injector into a high energy level of the quantum well relax to a lower energy level with the emission of a photon and are transmitted out to a region beyond the last barrier layer of the active region. The electron injector includes quantum well layers. The bottom of each deep quantum well or wells in the active region is lower in energy than the bottoms of the quantum well layers in the electron injector. The device may further comprise at least two stages wherein each stage contains an electron injector and an active region. The stages are separated by semiconductor layers that allow the transfer of electrons from the active region of one stage to the electron injector of the next stage.