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Physical Review Letters

Suppression of optical absorption by electric-field-induced quantum interference in coupled potential wells

Jérôme Faist, Federico Capasso, Albert L. Hutchinson, Loren N. Pfeiffer, K. W. West

Published Nov 22, 1993• 40 citations
Publisher

Abstract

A new quantum interference phenomenon in optical absorption is reported. This effect manifests itself in a striking suppression of the absorption coefficient as a function of the electric field concomitant with a negligible Stark shift of the transition in suitably designed coupled-quantum-well semiconductors. This phenomenon, which does not arise from a reduced overlap of the final and initial states of the transition, is shown to be caused by quantum interference between two spatially separated transitions. The basic and general nature of this mechanism could be exploited in other artificially structured materials as well.

DOI
10.1103/physrevlett.71.3573

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A new quantum interference phenomenon in optical absorption is reported. This effect manifests itself in a striking suppression of the absorption coefficient as a function of the electric field concomitant with a negligible Stark shift of the transition in suitably designed coupled-quantum-well semiconductors. This phenomenon, which does not arise from a reduced overlap of the final and initial states of the transition, is shown to be caused by quantum interference between two spatially separated transitions. The basic and general nature of this mechanism could be exploited in other artificially structured materials as well.
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We report the measurement of the transient intersubband absorption in a coupled quantum well semiconductor structure. Pulsed interband excitation is used to prepare a coherent population in the two lowest states of a three level system of electronic subbands. The time-dependent absorption to the upper state is probed by midinfrared time-domain spectroscopy. For certain pump–probe delay times we observe in the intersubband absorption spectra typical signatures of quantum interference: regions with reduced or enhanced absorption.
Density-matrix equations for electrons in laser-coupled quantum wells are derived in second quantization, including an off-diagonal radiative-decay coupling between a pair of electron transitions. Calculations of spontaneous photoluminescence and time-resolved optical absorption for the probe field are formulated. The zero absorption of the pump-laser field within an overlapping region between two absorption peaks is found in a resonant asymmetric double-quantum-well system and explained as the quantum interference between two nearly degenerate electron transitions. Quantum interference is clearly demonstrated through phase cancellation between the two statistically averaged transition dipole moments. The laser frequency for zero absorption can be tuned within a tunneling gap by applying a small dc bias field. The ${k}_{\ensuremath{\Vert}}$-dependent energy-level separation is found to be a crucial factor for destroying quantum interference. The optical gain of the probe field is seen as a hole in the weak absorption peak for the resonant asymmetric double quantum wells selectively coupled by a laser field and shown to be a result of the partial inversion of the electron occupation probabilities in momentum space after laser excitation. The probe-field gain increases with the strength of the pump laser. The effects of transition blocking, induced quantum coherence, and off-diagonal radiative-decay coupling are quantitatively analyzed for this gain.
Electromagnetically induced transparency may lead to suppression of two-photon absorption in a four-level atomic system. This phenomenon is manifested by destructive quantum interference among multiple excitation paths created by a coherent coupling field. We report an experimental observation of such suppression of two-photon absorption in cold 87Rb{}^{87}\mathrm{Rb}87Rb atoms.
Electroabsorption has been investigated in semi-insulating asymmetric GaAs/AlGaAs double quantum wells presenting high linear Stark responses, adequate for photorefractive applications. We have used the envelope function approximation to calculate the linear Stark shifts of the energy levels and select a suitable structure for the experimental study. The experimental data indicate that the response to the applied field critically depends on a complicated interplay of effects that compete or cooperate to suppress or enhance the electroabsorption. For positive field polarity, the competing contributions of the overlapping e1–hh1 and e1–hh2 transitions partially cancel the electroabsorption despite large linear Stark shifts. On the other hand, small negative fields induce large electroabsorption because the Stark shifts of the two transitions have opposite signs.