Challenges
Datasets
Workspaces
Papers
Discussions
Leaderboard
Log inSign up
Challenges
Datasets
Workspaces
Papers
Discussions
Leaderboard
Blog
Job Board
Q3AS

© 2026 Aqora Quantum S.A.S.

TermsPrivacyLegal Notice

Physical Review A

Theoretical study of resonant ultrashort-pulse propagation in semiconductors

A. Knorr, Rolf H. Binder, Markus Lindberg, S. W. Koch

Published Dec 1, 1992• 66 citations
Publisher

Abstract

Femtosecond-pulse propagation in resonantly excited semiconductors is investigated by numerically solving the semiconductor Maxwell-Bloch equations for plane waves. For excitation at the exciton resonance, it is shown that the pulse absorption exhibits a strongly nonlinear dependence on the input pulse area. Very long propagation distances for strong pulses are observed, but even when all dephasing processes have been neglected, no lossless propagation (self-induced transparency) was found. The influence of the electron-hole many-body effects, nonequilibrium carrier relaxation, and optical dephasing on the pulse-propagation dynamics is studied. The exchange interaction in the electron-hole plasma is shown to support large propagation distances. For excitation of the continuum states, the dependence of the absorption on the intensity of the input pulse is reduced due to the rapid carrier relaxation into quasiequilibrium distributions.

DOI
10.1103/physreva.46.7179

Related papers

Theory of the semiconductor photon echo

Markus Lindberg, Rolf H. Binder, Stephan W. Koch

The semiconductor Bloch equations are solved numerically for a two-pulse photon-echo configuration. The time-dependent diffracted signal is computed and the significance of many-body effects, carrier relaxation, and dephasing is investigated in detail. Assuming femtosecond-pulse excitation at various intensities and frequencies, distinctly different results are obtained if the exciton or the continuum electron-hole-pair states are excited. It is shown that pure exciton excitation produces a free-induction decay signal and no photon echo. An echo signal is obtained only if continuum states are excited either directly by choosing the central pulse frequencies appropriately or if the band-gap renormalization is sufficiently strong to shift continuum states into resonance. A continuous transition between free-induction decay and photon-echo signal is obtained with increasing excitation amplitude. A perturbative analytical analysis of the equations allows one to identify the role of the many-body effects in producing the different features.

Physical Review A•Feb 1, 1992•212 citations

Carrier-carrier interaction and ultrashort pulse propagation in a highly excited semiconductor laser amplifier beyond the rate equation limit

Steven C. Hughes

The influence of carrier correlation processes on the interaction and propagation of femtosecond optical pulses in an inverted semiconductor is theoretically investigated. Microscopically treated Coulomb scattering described from a first-principles theory, including both diagonal and nondiagonal dephasing, is seen to cause considerably different behavior on the dynamics than that modeled by employing a rate-equation approximation. Semiconductor intrinsic optical nonlinearities such as gain saturation and adiabatic following, controlled by microscopic dephasing and relaxation mechanisms, manifest dominantly in ultrafast transient effects that, experimentally, can appear as a typical Kerr-type (instantaneous) nonlinearity. It is shown that one cannot invoke an adiabatic elimination for the polarization equation on femtosecond time scales. The present self-consistent theory successfully explains recent experimental measurements without recourse to parametrized equations. The possible role of non-Markovian relaxation is also discussed.

Physical Review A•Sep 1, 1998•16 citations

Microscopic Theory of Rabi Flopping, Photon Echo, and Resonant Pulse Propagation in Semiconductors

Stephan W. Koch, A. Knorr, Rolf H. Binder +1 more

Abstract The phenomena of Rabi oscillations, resonant pulse propagation, and photon echo in semiconductors are investigated by numerically solving the full semiconductor Bloch equations for the example of bulk CdSe. The calculations are done for resonant femtosecond excitation at the exciton resonance. The many‐body modifications of Rabi flopping and semiconductor photon echo are discussed for a thin medium, whereas the propagation of weak and strong pulses is analyzed for an extended material. Rabi flopping of the density can lead to field reamplification and thus to long propagation distances of sufficiently strong pulses and to pulse break‐up. The area theorem known from self‐induced transparency (SIT) in atomic systems is generalized for the case of phase modulated fields and shown to be modified significantly in semiconductors. Even though no ideal SIT occurs, the Coulomb interacting electron–hole system nevertheless seems to support extremely long propagation distances of so‐called π‐pulses.

physica status solidi (b)•Sep 1, 1992•34 citations

Maxwell-Bloch Equations Modeling of Ultrashort Optical Pulse Propagation in Semiconductor Materials

Peter M. Goorjian, Govind Prasad Agrawal

An algorithm has been developed that solves the semiconductor Maxwell-Bloch equations, without making the standard slowly-varying envelope (SVEA) and rotating-wave (RWA) approximations. It is applied to study the propagation of ultrashort pulses in semiconductor materials. The results include many-body effects due to the Coulomb interaction among the charge carriers as well as the nonlinear effects resulting from spectral hole-burning.

•Jan 1, 1997•1 citation

Influence of exciton-phonon scattering on self-induced transmission in semiconductors

Nils C. Nielsen, Stefan Lindén, J. Kühl +1 more

Summary form only given. High-intensity pulse propagation of femtosecond laser pulses in optically thick semiconductor crystals can lead to self-induced transmission when the laser is tuned to a free exciton resonance. This effect means that at intensities on the order of MW/cm/sup 2/, pulses in the subpicosecond range lead to Rabi flopping of the carrier density. This causes the pulses to break up temporally after long-distance coherent propagation. The effect depends strongly on the coherence of the incident light field with the polarization of the exciton transition created in the semiconductor. Despite the expected excitation-induced dephasing, a large amount of coherent nonlinear transmission and a high contrast ratio of the Rabi flops are found at sample temperatures /spl les/10 K. In order to study the dynamics of the coherently driven polarization and the dependence on external dephasing, we introduced phonon-scattering by raising the temperature of our samples. The experiments were conducted with 800 fs pulses of an optical parametric amplifier in epitaxially grown CdSe. Our experiments clearly demonstrate that the coherent coupling of the free carrier polarization to the driving field of a high-intensity subpicosecond pulse with an area larger than /spl pi/ effectively prevents the expected dephasing by carrier-carrier scattering. Opening an additional dephasing channel by introducing phonon-scattering gradually weakens the coupling and suppresses characteristic features of self-induced transmission.

Quantum Electronics and Laser Science Conference•Nov 13, 2002•0 citations

Pulse Propagation and Many-body Effects in Semiconductor Four Wave Mixing

A. Schulze, A. Knorr, S. W. Koch

The simultaneous influence of pulse propagation and Coulomb many-body interaction in Four Wave Mixing experiments is theoretically studied using the Semiconductor-Maxwell-Bloch equations. In this framework, the propagation of the optical fields and the microscopic interaction of the light with the semiconductor are treated consistently. The Maxwell equation is used as a reduced wave equation and the many-body Coulomb interaction are treated at the level of a screened Hartree-Fock approximation including phenomenological decay terms. We have analyzed the interplay of the propagation and Coulomb effects by calculating the Four Wave Mixing signal (FWMS) for different sample lengths and various excitation conditions, i.e, for pulses with different intensities at the exciton and in the continuum.

Quantum Optoelectronics•Jan 1, 1995•0 citations
Femtosecond-pulse propagation in resonantly excited semiconductors is investigated by numerically solving the semiconductor Maxwell-Bloch equations for plane waves. For excitation at the exciton resonance, it is shown that the pulse absorption exhibits a strongly nonlinear dependence on the input pulse area. Very long propagation distances for strong pulses are observed, but even when all dephasing processes have been neglected, no lossless propagation (self-induced transparency) was found. The influence of the electron-hole many-body effects, nonequilibrium carrier relaxation, and optical dephasing on the pulse-propagation dynamics is studied. The exchange interaction in the electron-hole plasma is shown to support large propagation distances. For excitation of the continuum states, the dependence of the absorption on the intensity of the input pulse is reduced due to the rapid carrier relaxation into quasiequilibrium distributions.
The semiconductor Bloch equations are solved numerically for a two-pulse photon-echo configuration. The time-dependent diffracted signal is computed and the significance of many-body effects, carrier relaxation, and dephasing is investigated in detail. Assuming femtosecond-pulse excitation at various intensities and frequencies, distinctly different results are obtained if the exciton or the continuum electron-hole-pair states are excited. It is shown that pure exciton excitation produces a free-induction decay signal and no photon echo. An echo signal is obtained only if continuum states are excited either directly by choosing the central pulse frequencies appropriately or if the band-gap renormalization is sufficiently strong to shift continuum states into resonance. A continuous transition between free-induction decay and photon-echo signal is obtained with increasing excitation amplitude. A perturbative analytical analysis of the equations allows one to identify the role of the many-body effects in producing the different features.
The influence of carrier correlation processes on the interaction and propagation of femtosecond optical pulses in an inverted semiconductor is theoretically investigated. Microscopically treated Coulomb scattering described from a first-principles theory, including both diagonal and nondiagonal dephasing, is seen to cause considerably different behavior on the dynamics than that modeled by employing a rate-equation approximation. Semiconductor intrinsic optical nonlinearities such as gain saturation and adiabatic following, controlled by microscopic dephasing and relaxation mechanisms, manifest dominantly in ultrafast transient effects that, experimentally, can appear as a typical Kerr-type (instantaneous) nonlinearity. It is shown that one cannot invoke an adiabatic elimination for the polarization equation on femtosecond time scales. The present self-consistent theory successfully explains recent experimental measurements without recourse to parametrized equations. The possible role of non-Markovian relaxation is also discussed.
Abstract The phenomena of Rabi oscillations, resonant pulse propagation, and photon echo in semiconductors are investigated by numerically solving the full semiconductor Bloch equations for the example of bulk CdSe. The calculations are done for resonant femtosecond excitation at the exciton resonance. The many‐body modifications of Rabi flopping and semiconductor photon echo are discussed for a thin medium, whereas the propagation of weak and strong pulses is analyzed for an extended material. Rabi flopping of the density can lead to field reamplification and thus to long propagation distances of sufficiently strong pulses and to pulse break‐up. The area theorem known from self‐induced transparency (SIT) in atomic systems is generalized for the case of phase modulated fields and shown to be modified significantly in semiconductors. Even though no ideal SIT occurs, the Coulomb interacting electron–hole system nevertheless seems to support extremely long propagation distances of so‐called π‐pulses.
Summary form only given. High-intensity pulse propagation of femtosecond laser pulses in optically thick semiconductor crystals can lead to self-induced transmission when the laser is tuned to a free exciton resonance. This effect means that at intensities on the order of MW/cm/sup 2/, pulses in the subpicosecond range lead to Rabi flopping of the carrier density. This causes the pulses to break up temporally after long-distance coherent propagation. The effect depends strongly on the coherence of the incident light field with the polarization of the exciton transition created in the semiconductor. Despite the expected excitation-induced dephasing, a large amount of coherent nonlinear transmission and a high contrast ratio of the Rabi flops are found at sample temperatures /spl les/10 K. In order to study the dynamics of the coherently driven polarization and the dependence on external dephasing, we introduced phonon-scattering by raising the temperature of our samples. The experiments were conducted with 800 fs pulses of an optical parametric amplifier in epitaxially grown CdSe. Our experiments clearly demonstrate that the coherent coupling of the free carrier polarization to the driving field of a high-intensity subpicosecond pulse with an area larger than /spl pi/ effectively prevents the expected dephasing by carrier-carrier scattering. Opening an additional dephasing channel by introducing phonon-scattering gradually weakens the coupling and suppresses characteristic features of self-induced transmission.
The simultaneous influence of pulse propagation and Coulomb many-body interaction in Four Wave Mixing experiments is theoretically studied using the Semiconductor-Maxwell-Bloch equations. In this framework, the propagation of the optical fields and the microscopic interaction of the light with the semiconductor are treated consistently. The Maxwell equation is used as a reduced wave equation and the many-body Coulomb interaction are treated at the level of a screened Hartree-Fock approximation including phenomenological decay terms. We have analyzed the interplay of the propagation and Coulomb effects by calculating the Four Wave Mixing signal (FWMS) for different sample lengths and various excitation conditions, i.e, for pulses with different intensities at the exciton and in the continuum.