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Journal of the Optical Society of Korea

Coherent Absorption Spectroscopy with Supercontinuum for Semiconductor Quantum Well Structure

Ciare C. Byeon, Myoung-Kyu Oh, Hoonsoo Kang, Do‐Kyeong Ko, Jongmin Lee, Jong Su Kim, Hyoung-Gyu Choi, Mun Seok Jeong, Chul‐Sik Kee

Published Sep 25, 2007• 8 citations
Publisher

Abstract

We suggest that supercontinuum can be used for absorption spectroscopy to observe the exciton levels of a semiconductor nano-structure. Exciton absorption spectrum of a GaAs/AlGaAs quantum well was observed using supercontinuum generated by a microstructrured fiber pumped by a femtosecond (fs) pulsed laser. Significantly narrower peaks were observed in the absorption spectrum from 11 K up to room temperature than photoluminescence (PL) spectrum peaks. Because supercontinuum is coherent light and can readily provide high enough intensity, this method can provide a coherent ultra-broad band light source to identify exciton levels in semiconductors, and be applicable to coherent nonlinear spectroscopy such as electromagnetically induced transparency (EIT), lasing without inversion (LWI) and coherent photon control in semiconductor quantum structures.

DOI
10.3807/hkh.2007.11.3.138

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We suggest that supercontinuum can be used for absorption spectroscopy to observe the exciton levels of a semiconductor nano-structure. Exciton absorption spectrum of a GaAs/AlGaAs quantum well was observed using supercontinuum generated by a microstructrured fiber pumped by a femtosecond (fs) pulsed laser. Significantly narrower peaks were observed in the absorption spectrum from 11 K up to room temperature than photoluminescence (PL) spectrum peaks. Because supercontinuum is coherent light and can readily provide high enough intensity, this method can provide a coherent ultra-broad band light source to identify exciton levels in semiconductors, and be applicable to coherent nonlinear spectroscopy such as electromagnetically induced transparency (EIT), lasing without inversion (LWI) and coherent photon control in semiconductor quantum structures.
In this paper, we present the dynamics of supercontinuum (SC) generation in an asymmetric semiconductor quantum well (SQW) system employing modulated nonlinearity and dispersion under an electromagnetically induced transparency (EIT) window. Specifically, we utilize a weak probe pulse in the system, which is modulated by a strong control field, exploiting the phenomenon of EIT. Adjusting the control field parameters, we obtain large nonlinearities of the order [Formula: see text] and [Formula: see text] at probe wavelengths [Formula: see text] and [Formula: see text], respectively. The corresponding dispersion values are [Formula: see text] (for anomalous dispersion) and [Formula: see text] (for normal dispersion), respectively. We investigate the generation of a supercontinuum in the system separately for both the dispersion regimes by using a narrow-band Gaussian pulse. In the regime of anomalous dispersion, the broadening of the SC is mainly governed by the nonlinear processes like the self-phase modulation (SPM), the dispersive wave emission and the soliton self-frequency shift. These nonlinearities manifest into a highly modulated spectral profile with a span of around four octaves ([Formula: see text]3–11.5[Formula: see text][Formula: see text]m). However, in the domain of normal dispersion, the SC is dominated by SPM, extending asymmetrically to the higher wavelength side owing to the third-order dispersion. This results in the formation of a smooth and practically flat spectrum, but with a reduced bandwidth of around 3[Formula: see text][Formula: see text]m. Our study highlights the versatility of EIT-assisted nonlinear optical control in SQW systems and refers to their possible use in the development of broadband light sources for spectroscopy, optical communications and the development of integrated photonic devices.
Summary form only given. In the excitonic ac Stark shift in quantum wells the excitonic absorption line is blueshifted by shining on the sample an intense laser pulse, whose frequency is lower than the exciton transition frequency. The effect is bigger when the laser spectrum approaches the resonance with the excitonic absorption. But if the laser and excitonic absorption spectra sensibly overlap, a great amount of electronic population is excited and consequently the Coulomb nonlinearities due to the interaction between excited carries or excitons dramatically increase. One prominent effect under these conditions is the excitation- induced dephasing which can destroy the coherence of the electronic system and therefore the coupling between excitons and light, which is inherently coherent. Some evidence for the resonant Stark effect was already reported, but the direct observation of the spectral splitting was still missing. This observation demonstrates that the coherent exciton light coupling in semiconductors can be strong enough to survive the fast dephasing, and that therefore an efficient ultrafast manipulation of the exciton absorption in the coherent transient is possible. In order to magnify the ac Stark effect and its visibility a special sample was designed: a single In/sub 0.04/Ga/sub 0.96/As quantum well is grown on the top of an AlAs/AlGaAs distributed Bragg reflector; two /spl lambda//2 spacers separate the quantum well from the mirror and from the air. In this configuration the light field incident on the sample and the one reflected by the mirror constructively interfere at the quantum well position, giving a high effective absorption.
Different aspects of the photoluminescence from semiconductor quantum-confined structures are studied in this dissertation, for a better understanding of fundamental physics of semiconductors.The precursor of any photoluminescence study is the characterization of the linear optical properties of the semiconductor structure. High resolution absorption measurements were performed in order to study the interplay of disorder and acoustic phonon scattering in a quantum well. Also, reflectivity measurements, together with a fitting procedure based on the transfer matrix formalism, are used to determine the thickness of samples.Excitons are atom-like quasi-particles, formed from a bound electron-hole pair. They follow a Bose-Einstein statistic, so in principle it is possible to achieve an excitonic Bose-Einstein condensate. Time resolved photoluminescence measurements were performed over an extensive range of lattice temperatures and carrier concentrations, in order to determine the fraction of excitons formed from the electron-hole plasma in a quantum well, after non-resonant excitation. The experimental spectra were compared to a pure plasma calculation first, then excitons were taken into account. The highest fraction of formed excitons is found for low temperatures and intermediate carrier densities. This fraction is found to be very small, and this has clear implications on the excitonic Bose-Einstein condensation studies.The photoluminescence emitted left and right from a quantum well is interfered in a modified Mach-Zender interferometer. It is shown that the light emitted on the two paths will interfere for a V-shape geometry and will not for any other paths.A structure formed by placing a quantum well in a field antinode of a resonant planar microcavity exhibits normal mode coupling: splitting of the resonance spectral line. The coherence properties of the photoluminescence from a normal-mode-coupling microcavity are studied using another version of the Mach-Zender interferometer. The degree of coherence measured in this way depends greatly on the pump wavelength and intensity, ranging from zero to 0.8. However, direct observation of the emission speckle shows significant coherence in all cases. The difference is explained by the different methods used to evaluate the coherence.The strong coupling between a quantum dot and a photonic crystal nanocavity is investigated by observation of photoluminescence. A new method of tunning the cavity wavelength by deposition of a thin film of solid Xenon on all the surfaces of the sample is presented. The method allows the scanning of the cavity wavelength with about 5 nm without a decrease in the quality factor and without changing the temperature.Finally, an extensive study of the quality factors of quantum dot photonic crystal nanocavities is presented. The role of the quantum dot ensemble absorption is investigated. At higher excitation levels, lasing is observed and discussed.
We review the nonlinear-optical effects observed at room temperature in semiconductor quantum-well structures photoexcited near the band gap. A comprehensive discussion of optical transitions in these microstructures is given, including excitonic effects and the specific features of room-temperature exciton resonances. Experimental investigations using continuous-wave, picosecond-, and femtosecond-laser sources are presented. They show extremely efficient nonlinear processes. In the case of excitations that are long compared with the exciton-ionization time, the induced changes in absorption and refraction do not depend on the wavelength or on the duration of excitation. These changes depend only on the density of absorbed photons and are interpreted in terms of electron–hole plasma screening and band filling. In contrast, for ultrashort excitation, nonlinear processes depend critically on the excitation wavelength. The selective generation of excitons is found to produce effects larger than a plasma of the same density. This unexpected result is shown to arise from the low temperature of the exciton gas before it interacts with the lattice and from the decrease of screening that is the reduced dimensionality of quantum-well structures.
We have demonstrated ultrafast coherent control of excitons and exciton-polaritons in semiconductor quantum nanostructures. An InGaAs/AlGaAs multi-quantum-well Bragg structure and an AlGaAs/GaAs crescent-shaped quantum wire structure were used as samples for the control of the exciton-polariton and excitons in the nanostructure. In the multi-quantum-well Bragg sample, a two-stage decay due to the super-radiant exciton-polariton mode is clearly observed under the resonance conditions. Highly sensitive coherent control measurement enables us to observe the dephasing characteristics in the crescent-shaped quantum wire sample, and a very fast dephasing time T 2 of between 200 fs and 300 fs with power dependence was observed.