Coherent terahertz sound amplification and spectral line narrowing in a stark ladder superlattice

Phys Rev Lett. 2010 Feb 26;104(8):085501. doi: 10.1103/PhysRevLett.104.085501. Epub 2010 Feb 22.

Abstract

The bias voltage applied to a weakly coupled n-doped GaAs/AlAs superlattice increases the amplitude of the coherent hypersound oscillations generated by a femtosecond optical pulse. This bias-induced amplitude increase and experimentally observed spectral narrowing of the superlattice phonon mode with a frequency 441 GHz provides the evidence for hypersound amplification by stimulated emission of phonons in a system where the inversion of the electron populations for phonon-assisted transitions exists.