New method of detection of terahertz acoustic phonons in quantum well structures

The effect of nonequilibrium acoustic phonons upon the luminescence of a quasi-resonantly excited ultrathin CdTe/ZnTe quantum well has been studied. It was shown that changes in the quantum well luminescence spectrum manifest already for a low intensity of phonon generation. We suggest to use this effect for the terahertz acoustic phonon detection in low-dimensional heterostructures.