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Physical Review B

Double-slit versus single-slit behavior in the intersubband absorption of semiconductor heterostructures

W. Pötz

Published Mar 28, 2005• 19 citations
Publisher

Abstract

Structural coherent control is used to design open semiconductor heterostructures whose intersubband absorption displays either single-slit or double-slit quantum interference. In this theoretical study we show that in the ``double-slit'' structure, optical intersubband absorption of a light pulse can be modified by adjustment of the phase of a control field. By careful choice of the steady-state subband population via charge transport through the heterostructure, an incident pump pulse can either be amplified or attenuated. This coherent control mechanism is absent in the ``single-slit'' structure. Our results and physical interpretation are based on a microscopic self-consistent semiclassical theory of the light-matter interaction in semiconductors and the use of a gauge which allows direct physical interpretation of the electron kinetic equations.

DOI
10.1103/physrevb.71.125331

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Structural coherent control is used to design open semiconductor heterostructures whose intersubband absorption displays either single-slit or double-slit quantum interference. In this theoretical study we show that in the double-slit'' structure, optical intersubband absorption of a light pulse can be modified by adjustment of the phase of a control field. By careful choice of the steady-state subband population via charge transport through the heterostructure, an incident pump pulse can either be amplified or attenuated. This coherent control mechanism is absent in the single-slit'' structure. Our results and physical interpretation are based on a microscopic self-consistent semiclassical theory of the light-matter interaction in semiconductors and the use of a gauge which allows direct physical interpretation of the electron kinetic equations.
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.
We investigate theoretically coherent control of optical absorption and emission (optical gain) in semiconductor double wells by use of two coherent light sources. Our analysis is based on a microscopic theory of optical excitation in semiconductors which accounts for many-body effects. Specifically, we show that electron–hole pair (exciton) formation in an asymmetric double well can be controlled by intensity and phase of a dc microwave (MW) field if the pulse duration lies below the MW-induced Rabi period. Similarly, resonant MW fields are shown to allow control of intersubband absorption and emission spectra of semiconductor heterostructures.
We present results for two coherent control schemes in semiconductor heterostructures obtained within Boltzmann- Bloch equations. The latter are obtained from Dyson's equation within the Keldysh nonequilibrium Green's function approach and allow a microscopic analysis of coherent control schemes in semiconductors. Here we focus on the coherent control of optical gain and longitudinal optical photon emission rates in intersubband transitions in a three-subband model of a biased asymmetric double well. We show that by coupling the two energetically close subbands with a coherent microwave field, we can induce coherence into the carriers in the double well, thus manipulating intersubband transitions. By adjusting the phase of the microwave field, we can achieve significant modification to the gain spectra for light pulses shorter than the period of the low frequency intersubband polarization. Similarly, LO- phonon induced intersubband transitions can be controlled due to quantum interference between electron-lattice and electron-light interactions.
We theoretically study the use of quantum interference to coherently control the transverse direction in which carriers are optically injected in a semiconductor heterostructure, and the subsequent transport and capture of these carriers. We consider a structure consisting of three quantum wells, where carriers can be ejected from the middle one in a given direction by coherently controlled optical pulse excitations. After traveling through the barrier, electrons are slowed down by space-charge effects, and can be captured in the side wells by emitting a phonon. If the side wells are different, the coherent control of the injection can be monitored optically. We propose a design of a AlGaAs heterostructure for a possible experimental realization of the effects considered in this paper.
We present two examples of coherent control of inter(sub)band transitions in a semiconductor double well by coherent light sources. Accounting for the upper hole subband and two lowest electron subbands, a microscopic theoretical analysis shows that electron‐hole pair generation by a sub‐picosecond pump pulse can be controlled by the intensity and the phase of a dc microwave field which resonantly couples the two electron subbands. Light absorption can be either enhanced or reduced. Secondly, it is shown that proper combination of two pulsed laser fields allows control of electron inter(sub)band transitions and final‐state population, i.e., the formation of indirect versus direct excitons.
We study electronic transitions between a subband and a lower subband doublet which is driven by a coherent microwave (MW) field in a semiconductor double well structure. Within a microscopic three-band model, we show that variation of the MW phase allows manipulation of the optical gain provided the probe pulse duration is shorter than the period of the MW-field-generated interband polarization in the doublet. Moreover, we find that optical gain without inversion can be achieved in spite of subpicosecond dissipative mechanisms provided by electron-phonon coupling and electron tunneling into and out of the double well.