Harnessing the magneto-optics of quantum wires for designing optical amplifiers

Department of Physics and Astronomy, Rice University - P.O. Box 1892, Houston, TX 77251, USA

Received: 20 July 2018
Accepted: 31 July 2018

Abstract

Quantum wires occupy a unique status among the semiconducting nanostructures with reduced dimensionality – no other system seems to have engaged researchers with as many appealing features to pursue. This letter aims at a core issue related with the magnetoplasmon excitations in the quantum wires characterized by the confining harmonic potential and subjected to a longitudinal electric field and a perpendicular magnetic field in the symmetric gauge. Despite the substantive complexity, we obtain the exact analytical expressions for the eigenfunction and eigenenergy, using the scheme of ladder operators, which fundamentally characterize the quantal system. Crucial to this inquiry is an intersubband collective excitation that evolves into a magnetoroton – above a threshold value of magnetic field – which observes a negative group velocity between the maxon and the roton. The evidence of negative group velocity implies anomalous dispersion in a gain medium with the population inversion that forms the basis for the lasing action of lasers. Thus, the technological pathway that unfolds is the route to devices exploiting the magnetoroton features for designing the novel optical amplifiers at nanoscale and hence paving the way to a new generation of lasers.