Terahertz field-induced modulations of intersubband absorptions in quantum wells

Nonlinear optical properties of intersubband electrons in a 3-level quantum well under intense terahertz field are investigated by using a density matrix approach. The results show that the terahertz fields with different frequencies cause the distinct modulations of the intersubband absorptions. The terahertz-induced sideband and Autler--Towns splitting in the absorption spectrum are obtained, respectively for the terahertz-photon energy below and close to the transition energy between the ground and first excited state.