Infrared spectroscopy of semiconductor quantum structures and the ion-beam and free-electron-laser facilities at Rossendorf

First I will give a brief overview of my institution, the Research Center Rossendorf near Dresden. Though much smaller than LBNL, its activities also cover a wide range from Nuclear Physics over Materials Science to Radiochemistry and Biomedical Research. The Institute of Ion Beam Physics and Materials Research accommodates a large ion beam center (with ions from eV to MeV available), other local groups have been involved in the construction of the superconducting electron accelerator ELBE, which will, apart from other applications, be the basis of an infrared free-electron laser (FEL). This FEL, whose first lasing is expected in early 2002, will be used for semiconductor spectroscopy as well as for studies on biological samples.

In the second part of my talk I will stroll around two of the main playgrounds for infrared spectroscopy of semiconductor quantum structures: the physics of intersubband transitions in quantum wells, which have brought us novel infrared lasers and detectors, and the physics of Bloch oscillations in superlattices, which are supposed to bring us a tunable THz source at some point. Finally I will present some infrared experiments concerning the electron distribution function in superlattices, performed with a step-scan FTIR with sub-microsecond time resolution, and will be touching on the issue of appropriate narrow- and broad-band infrared and THz sources.