Sound amplification by stimulated emission of radiation phonon laser action had been proposed in a wide range of physical systems such as nanomechanics, semiconductors, nanomagnets and paramagnetic ions in a lattice. Finding materials that stimulate emission was needed for the development of the SASER. The generation of coherent phonons in a double-barrier semiconductor heterostructure was first proposed around 1990. The transformation of the electric potential energy in a vibrational mode of the lattice is remarkably facilitated by the electronic confinement in a double-barrier structure. On this basis, physicists were searching for materials in which stimulated emission rather than spontaneous emission, is the dominant decay process. A device
Sound amplification by stimulated emission of radiation semiconductor heterostructure where the tuning into resonance of one-phonon transition of electron - hole recombination can be carried out by external pressure, magnetic or electric fields. The second scheme uses one-phonon transition between direct and indirect exciton levels in coupled quantum wells. We note that an exciton is an electrically neutral quasiparticle that describes an elementary excitation of condensed matter. It can transport energy without transporting net electric charge. The tuning into the resonance of this transition can be accomplished by engineering of dispersion of indirect exciton by external in-plane magnetic and normal electric fields. The magnitude of phonon wave