Intersubband stimulated emission in GaAs/AlGaAs quantum wells: Pump-probe experiments using a two-color free-electron laser

Intersubband stimulated emission under optical pumping has been observed in the conduction band of GaAs–AlGaAs quantum wells. The asymmetric coupled quantum wells which exhibit three conduction bound levels are designed to exhibit population inversion under optical pumping. An optical excitation at λ=9.2 μm is used to bleach the absorption between the ground and second excited subband. The population inversion between excited subbands is pumped and probed on a picosecond time scale by a tunable two-color free-electron laser. The stimulated amplification is studied at low temperature in infrared waveguides as a function of the waveguide length and of the probe wavelength. A stimulated gain ≈80 cm−1 is measured at 12.5 μm in agreement with calculations.