Towards stimulated generation of coherent plasmons in nanostructures

A possible generation scheme for growing coherent plasma oscillations (plasma instability) is presented. Specific quantum well structures, where a sufficient population inversion can be maintained in the carrier distribution by appropriate injection-extraction configurations, form the basis of this scheme. Self-consistent random phase approximation calculations show that a population inversion, leading to a plasma instability, can occur in such structures. A comparison between the calculated and the observed differential conductance curves suggests that such quantum well structures could be designed as active regions for the generation of terahertz frequency radiation sources. (C) 1999 American Institute of Physics. [S0021-8979(99)05207-X].