Carrier-carrier relaxation kinetics in quantum well semiconductor structures with nonparabolic energy bands

We describe carrier-carrier scattering dynamics in an inverted quantum well structure including the nonparabolic nature of the valance band. A solution of the semiconductor Bloch equations yields strong evidence to a large change in the temporal evolution of the carrier distributions compared to the case of parabolic bands. The nonparabolic bands and the consequent change in the density of states reduce considerably the degree of gain saturation while decreasing the time constant governing the relaxation. This results in a measurable reduction of the role played by carrier-carrier scattering in determining the gain nonlinearity and hence the modulation and switching speed of lasers and optical amplifiers.