Intersubband relaxation dynamics in narrow InGaAs/AlAsSb quantum well structures studied by femtosecond pump-probe spectroscopy

Intersubband transitions (ISBT) in semiconductor quantum wells have been attracting much attention for infrared optoelectronic device applications such as quantum cascade lasers and quantum well infrared detectors. There is also considerable interest to extend ISBT to short wavelengths (< 2 μm), for devices applications such as fast switching and modulators, due to ultrafast intersubband relaxation in the picosecond and subpicosecond regime. Therefore attentions were driven to heterosystem with large conduction band offsets (> 1 eV).
On the other hand, to achieve short wavelengths thin quantum wells (< 3 nm) are required, where the first excited state inside the QW may lie higher than some state related to indirect valleys. Examples for such material systems are strained InGaAs/AlAs or lattice matched InGaAs/AlAsSb, both grown on InP.
We have studied the intersubband relaxation dynamics in multi QWs of both material systems by femtosecond pump-probe measurements using an optical parametric oscillator. By the transient transmission as a function of the pump-probe delay we observe that some long living states are present in our systems, showing that more than two levels might be involved in the relaxation dynamics. This can be caused by transfer of electrons to X- or L-states in the QWs or the barriers. To investigate the origin of such long living states and the involved relaxation time constants, we have studied samples with different QW thicknesses, containing doping impurities localized either inside the QW or at the barriers. The experimental results are compared to simulations based on rate equations.