We study a new class of nonlinear cooperative phenomena that occur when light propagates in direct-gap semiconductors. The nonlinearity here is due to a process, first discussed by A. L. Ivanov, L. V. Keldysh, and V. V. Panashchenko, in which two excitons are bound into a biexciton by virtue of their Coulomb interaction. For the geometry of a ring cavity, we derive a system of nonlinear differential equations describing the dynamical evolution of coherent excitons, photons, and biexcitons. For the time-independent case we arrive at the equation of state of optical bistability theory, and this equation is found to differ considerably from the equations of state in the two-level atom model and in the exciton region of the spectrum. We examine the stability of the steady states and determine the switchover times between the optical bistability branches. We also show that in the unstable sections of the equation of state, nonlinear periodic and chaotic self-pulsations may arise, with limit cycles and strange attractors being created in the phase space of the system. The scenario for the transition to the dynamical chaos mode is found. A computer experiment is used to study the dynamic optical bistability. Finally, we discuss the possibility of detecting these phenomena in experiments.
We measured the optical transitions due to the internal energy levels of an exciton and biexciton in a CuCl single crystal using pump-probe spectroscopy. The transient absorption bands due to the transitions from the
1s to
2p and from the
1s to
3p exciton states were observed at 3 K, which is consistent with their reported energies. Simultaneously, the transient absorption peak due to the biexciton was observed, which corresponds to a transition from the lowest state (composed of two
1s excitons) to higher states (composed of
1s and
2p excitons). The value of the observed biexciton peak energy was reasonable considering the hydrogen molecule orbitals and the electron-to-hole effective mass ratio. In addition, the transient absorption peaks were broadened at 77 K, because of the increase in the homogeneous width of the
2p exciton state. The transient absorption spectrum was almost completely determined by this width. Our findings are of importance with regard to the optical phenomena in the infrared region related to the quantum coherence of excitons and biexcitons in semiconductors.