Abstract
The possibility of amplification of the coupled plasmon—the longitudinal optical phonon (LO) mode in HgTe quantum wells is theoretically considered assuming an inverted band population. We calculate the dispersion of the plasmon-LO modes taking into account the spatial dispersion of the electronic polarizability. It is shown that stimulated emission of the plasmon-LO mode is possible in the frequency range corresponding to the Reststrahlen band of GaAs both in a 6 nm wide HgTe/CdTe QW and in a 5 nm wide HgTe/Cd0.7Hg0.3Te QW grown on the (013) plane. Due to the anisotropy of the dispersion law for the plasmon-LO mode, the [03−1] direction appears to be optimal for generation.