Optical second-harmonic generation in two-level quantum wells embedded in a planar microcavity

A theoretical analysis of the optical second-harmonic generation arising from intersubband transitions in quantum wells embedded in a planar microcavity is presented. Starting from the Maxwell-Lorentz equations, an expression for the field in each layer and an integral equation for the local field in a quantum-well structure are obtained. Then, matching the boundary condition, the field in the quantum-well microcavity system is determined. Following the same scheme, the field at second-harmonic frequency in the quantum-well microcavity system is obtained and the second-harmonic generation conversion efficiency is thus determined. By carrying out detailed numerical calculations, the influence of the microcavity on optical second-harmonic generation is shown.