Well-width dependence of coupled Bloch-phonon oscillations in biased InGaAs/InAlAs superlattices

The coupling between Bloch oscillations and longitudinal optical (LO) phonons is investigated in ternary In0.53Ga0.47As / In0.52Al0.48As superlattices of different well widths. In femtosecond time-resolved studies, a strong increase of the coherent LO phonon amplitudes is observed when the Bloch oscillations are subsequently tuned into resonance with the different optical phonon modes of the ternary semiconductor materials. In a narrow-well superlattice where electronic minibands are energetically shifted close to the confining barrier potential, the phonon amplitudes are asymmetrically enhanced on the high-frequen cy edge
of the resonance. Here, at high electric fields, field induced tunneling into above-barrier continuum states leads to a rapid dephasing of Bloch oscillations. The associated polarization change provides an additional excitation process for coherent LO phonons.