RESUMEN
Carrier relaxation is a key issue in determining the efficiency of semiconductor optoelectronic device operation. Devices incorporating semiconductor quantum dots have the potential to overcome many of the limitations of quantum-well-based devices because of the predicted long quantum-dot excited-state lifetimes. For example, the population inversion required for terahertz laser operation in quantum-well-based devices (quantum-cascade lasers) is fundamentally limited by efficient scattering between the laser levels, which form a continuum in the plane of the quantum well. In this context, semiconductor quantum dots are a highly attractive alternative for terahertz devices, because of their intrinsic discrete energy levels. Here, we present the first measurements, and theoretical description, of the intersublevel carrier relaxation in quantum dots for transition energies in the few terahertz range. Long intradot relaxation times (1.5 ns) are found for level separations of 14 meV (3.4 THz), decreasing very strongly to approximately 2 ps at 30 meV (7 THz), in very good agreement with our microscopic theory of the carrier relaxation process. Our studies pave the way for quantum-dot terahertz device development, providing the fundamental knowledge of carrier relaxation times required for optimum device design.
RESUMEN
BACKGROUND: Depression is characterized by cognitive impairments, including executive dysfunctions. These executive deficits could reflect impairments of more basic executive processes, such as updating, set shifting and inhibition. While shifting and inhibition impairments are often reported, studies on depression have been somewhat obscure about specific deficits of the updating process. The main goal of that study was to assess the updating process in young in-patients with depression. METHODS: We used a verbal n-back task to assess updating process. Load and mental manipulation within working memory (WM) were incremented by using three different levels of complexity (1,2,3-back). Neuropsychological tests and an attentional task (0-back) were also administered to subjects. Twenty-two individuals meeting DSM-IV criteria for Major Unipolar Depression and 22 healthy control subjects, matched on age, verbal IQ and education, were included in the study. RESULTS: Subjects with depression showed significant deficits at the n-back task compared to control subjects. They were normal in tasks assessing the short-term maintenance in WM and attention. This suggests that depressed patients exhibit impairment in the updating process. Depressed patients also showed set shifting and inhibition deficits. Only the n-back task was correlated with the number of hospitalizations and the longitudinal course of the illness. CONCLUSIONS: Our results suggest that young depressed in-patients have widespread executive dysfunctions, including updating, shifting and inhibition processes. We also found a correlation between a longitudinal measure of depression severity and an updating task performance. We suggest that using multiple executive tasks gives the opportunity to distinguish the specific influence of various executive processes on clinical dimensions in depression.