Microcavity effect on the nonlinear intersubband response of multiple-quantum-well structures: The strong-coupling-regime

Abstract

We theoretically discuss the nonlinear intersubband response of multiple-quantum-well structures embedded in microcavities with plane-wave approximation. We employ a semiclassical approach based on the transfer matrix formalism and the so-called sheet model. The linear absorptive losses are taken into account. It is shown that in the strong-coupling-regime the saturation effect leads to the evolution of the absorption spectra from a pair of simple harmonic oscillators to highly anharmonic ones. The usefulness of the simplified analytical approach, based on a standard multibeam interference analysis and the “mean-field” approximation is also demonstrated.