We observe a phase coherent all‐optical photorefractive effect in a ZnSe single quantum well in four‐wave‐mixing configuration using ultrashort pulses. The microscopic origin of the observed effect is attributed to the coherent formation of an electron grating by interfering excitons.
We observe an efficient phase coherent photorefractive effect in ZnSe single quantum wells for ultrashort light pulses resonant to the excitonic transition. The effect is attributed to the formation of an electron grating in the quantum well induced by the interference of coherent excitons that preserve phase and polarization of the incident light fields. All characteristic features of the diffracted signal are explained and reproduced by numerical calculations that are based on the optical Bloch equations for a three-level system.
We investigate the spectral and thermal dependence of an exciton resonant all-optical and phase coherent photorefractive effect in a ZnSe single quantum well by four-wave mixing using 90fs pulses. The observed phase coherence is attributed to an exciton-induced formation of an electron grating within the quantum well. The diffracted signal exhibits an exponential decay that is equal to the exciton dephasing rate and it shows a pronounced suppression at the temporal overlap of incident pulses. With decreasing photon energy the diffracted signal traces reveal faster decay and the exciton transition is shifted towards lower energies indicating an increasing electron concentration within the quantum well. In temperature dependent measurements we observe a filling of the signal dip at pulse overlap and a transition from the photorefractive effect to a ${\ensuremath{\chi}}^{(3)}$ four-wave-mixing process below 35K. Additional experiments using a cw pump laser are consistent with the proposed mechanism of the observed photorefractive effect. The phase coherent photorefractive signal is reproduced by a phenomenological model that is based on the optical Bloch equations for a five-level system.
We report on the decoherence of excitons in ZnSe single quantum wells by intensity dependent four‐wave‐mixing (FWM) experiments using 30 fs pulses. The FWM traces at the 11h exciton transition reveal marked quantum beats and a fast decay at pulse overlap that is attributed to a destructive interference of the polarization wavepacket and to an effective diffraction of the exciton polarization at an electron‐hole‐pair density grating. Three‐pulse FWM experiments are performed to study the formation of excitons from this electron‐hole‐pair grating.
We investigate the influence of electron density and trion formation on the phase-coherent photorefractive effect in ZnSe single quantum wells by laser energy and temperature dependent degenerate four-wave-mixing experiments using 90-fs pulses. Two different structures with the same quantum well width and confinement energy but different barriers adjacent to the GaAs substrate are studied in order to compare the formation of a photorefractive electron density grating at specific excitation conditions. At temperatures below 35 K and laser excitation energy close to the exciton energy the formation of trions significantly suppresses the generation of an electron density grating. At lower excitation energies increasing space-charge fields reduce the trion binding energy which leads to an enhanced thermal ionization of trions resulting in a strong phase-coherent photorefractive effect. Due to the thermal dissociation of trions at temperatures exceeding 45 K a significant photorefractive effect exists even at exciton resonant excitation. The experimentally observed signal traces obtained at different excitation conditions are in good agreement with model calculations that are based on the optical Bloch equations, including inhomogeneous broadening at strong space-charge fields.