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Journal of the Optical Society of America B

Ultrafast coherent carrier control in quantum wells

Jeremy J. Baumberg, Albert P. Heberle, Klaus Köhler, Klaus Ploog

Published Jun 1, 1996• 41 citations
Publisher

Abstract

We report the coherent control of excitons in quantum wells with pairs of 150-fs infrared pulses. Oscillations in the exciton density versus inter-pump-pulse separation, which correspond to the resonant transition energy, yield new insight into coherent exciton dynamics when their phase is analyzed. We demonstrate that these oscillations are caused when the second laser pulse destroys or enhances excitons that were created by the first pulse. The coherent carrier destruction generates ultrafast exciton dynamics that are not limited by the linewidth of the optical transition.

DOI
10.1364/josab.13.001246

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Proceedings of SPIE, the International Society for Optical Engineering/Proceedings of SPIE•Apr 23, 1998•2 citations
We report the coherent control of excitons in quantum wells with pairs of 150-fs infrared pulses. Oscillations in the exciton density versus inter-pump-pulse separation, which correspond to the resonant transition energy, yield new insight into coherent exciton dynamics when their phase is analyzed. We demonstrate that these oscillations are caused when the second laser pulse destroys or enhances excitons that were created by the first pulse. The coherent carrier destruction generates ultrafast exciton dynamics that are not limited by the linewidth of the optical transition.
We demonstrate the coherent destruction of photogenerated excitons in semiconductor quantum wells within a few hundred femtoseconds of their excitation. Coherent control of carrier dynamics is achieved with phase-locked pairs of 100 fs infrared pulses. The technique induces an optical response which is faster than the inverse of the exciton linewidth superseding Fourier limits for a single pulse. Energy selectivity enables the coherent transfer of angular momentum between hole states. Such phase-tailored pulse trains can be utilized to investigate the generation process and intermediate virtual states in quantum structures.
In this paper, we report on the ultrafast coherent control of excitons in quantum wells using a phase-locked pulse sequence generated by pulse-shaping techniques. The pulse-shaping system with a double liquid-crystal spatial light modulator (SLM), and a Ti3+-sapphire laser is used to generate phase-locked pulses. The ultrafast coherent control of the exciton population and polarization is demonstrated by the observation of the reflectivity change in the pump-probe and the diffracted power in the degenerate-four-wave-mixing (DFWM) measurements. In single quantum wells, good coherent control characteristics with 87% coherent carrier destruction are demonstrated at the low excitation power of 0.15 mW (∼1.1×1010 photons/cm2). In addition, the preliminary manipulation of the exciton population is demonstrated by the phase-locked triple pulses. In the case of coupled quantum wells, the modulation of the SLM is carefully controlled and the coherent control of both the exciton population and the polarization is demonstrated in the two different coupled quantum-well samples.
In this paper, we report the manipulation of coherent exciton in single- and coupled-quantum-wells using phase locked pulses generated by pulse shaping techniques instead of Michelson interferometer. The pulse shaping system with double liquid crystal spatial light modulator, and the Ti3+-sapphire laser with pulse width of about 120 fs are used to generate phase-locked pulses. GaAs/AlGaAs quantum-wells (exciton energy: E0 equals 1.5470 eV) and asymmetric double coupled quantum-well structures (exciton energy: E1 equals 1.5348 eV, E2 equals 1.5422 eV) are used in the experiments. Manipulation of coherent exciton are demonstrated by observation of both the reflectivity-change in the pump-probe and the diffracted power in the degenerate-four-wave-mixing (DFWM) measurements using phase- locked twin-pulse (k1) and single-pulse (k2). Coherent destruction in single quantum-well is observed by the rapid decrease of reflectivity-change after the arrival of the second pulse (pulse interval: 500 fs) and good coherent control with 87% of coherent carrier destruction is demonstrated at low excitation power of 0.15 mW. In case of coupled quantum-wells, the modulation of SLM is carefully set to the twin-pulse having the spectrum with a minimum at both exciton wavelengths for destructive condition. After arrival of the second pulse, coherent control of the quantum beats are observed in DFWM signal.
In this paper, we report ultrafast manipulation of coherent excitons in quantum-wells using phase locked pulse sequence prepared by a frequency domain shaping technique. The pulse shaping system with double liquid crystal spatial light modulator (SLM) and the Ti3+-sapphire laser are used to generate phase-locked pulses. Ultrafast coherent control of exciton population and exciton polarization is demonstrated by the observation of the reflectivity-change in the pump-probe and the diffracted power in the degenerate-four-wave-mixing measurements. In the single quantum wells, good coherent control characteristics with 87% of coherent carrier destruction is demonstrated at low excitation power of 0.15 mW (approximately 1.1 X 1010 photons/cm2). Also the preliminary manipulation of the exciton population is demonstrated by the phase locked multi-pulses. In case of coupled quantum-wells, the modulation of SLM is carefully controlled and coherent control of both the exciton population and the polarization are demonstrated in the two different coupled quantum well samples.
We present an experimental study of the coherent dynamics in quantum wells for the simultaneous excitation of Lorentzian excitons below the band edge and structured exciton Fano continua corresponding to higher-order subband transitions. Spectrally resolved transient four-wave mixing (FWM) experiments with 100 fs pulses were performed on a 500 \AA{} broad GaAs/${\mathrm{Al}}_{x}{\mathrm{Ga}}_{1\ensuremath{-}x}\mathrm{As}$ quantum well over a wide range of carrier densities. At lower carrier densities, the dephasing times of the different exciton transitions were determined from the width of the narrow resonances in the distinctly structured FWM spectra. These data demonstrate that the decay of the FWM signal from exciton Fano continua in the time-delay domain is not determined by dephasing at the lowest carrier densities. This is indicative of quantum interference which has its origin in many-body exciton-continuum coupling. At higher carrier densities, the FWM spectra are much less structured due to stronger dephasing, quantum interference effects lose their importance, and the structured exciton Fano continua show properties similar to unstructured continua without embedded exciton transitions.
Schemes for coherent control of carrier dynamics in semiconductors are investigated theoretically. We consider coherent control of carrier generation and charge oscillations by quantum interference of one- and three-photon absorption, as well as one- and two-photon absorption. It is shown that, for coherent light pulses shorter than characteristic phase breaking times, the relative phase between the two excitation routes can be used to control the extent of charge oscillations in semiconductor double wells. Furthermore, we show that optical gain and absorption can be controlled coherently by two coherent light fields. In particular, optical gain can be shifted from one intersubband transition to another.