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

Theory of quantum-coherence phenomena in semiconductor quantum dots

Chi‐Wai Chow, Hans Christian Schneider, Mark C. Phillips

Published Nov 3, 2003• 123 citations
Publisher

Abstract

This paper explores quantum-coherence phenomena in a semiconductor quantum-dot structure. The calculations predict the occurrence of inversionless gain, electromagnetically induced transparency, and refractive-index enhancement in the transient regime for dephasing rates typical under room temperature and high excitation conditions. They also indicate deviations from atomic systems because of strong many-body effects. Specifically, Coulomb interaction involving states of the quantum dots and the continuum belonging to the surrounding quantum well leads to collision-induced population redistribution and many-body energy and field renormalizations that modify the magnitude, spectral shape, and time dependence of quantum-coherence effects.

DOI
10.1103/physreva.68.053802

Related papers

Quantum coherence in semiconductor quantum dots

Hans Christian Schneider, Weng W. Chow

Quantum-coherence phenomena are studied for semiconductor quantum-dot structures under transient conditions. Inversionless gain, electromagnetically induced transparency, refractive index enhancement and group-velocity reduction are predicted. Substantial deviations from atomic systems exist because of many-body effects.

Conference on Lasers and Electro-Optics•Jan 1, 2004•0 citations

Many-body theory of quantum coherence in semiconductor quantum dots

Chi‐Wai Chow, S. Michael, Hans Christian Schneider

A many-body theory for quantum coherence in a semiconductor quantum-dot system is presented. We present the theory in detail for a Λ scheme in a InGaAs–GaAs quantum dot with a pulsed drive field. The paper shows the significant differences in the predictions of this theory and those of an independent-particle treatment, adapted from atomic quantum coherence theory. Specifically, the influence of the quantum-dot level structure on group-velocity slowdown is discussed, and the influence of different Coulomb renormalization effects is analysed.

Journal of Modern Optics•Nov 10, 2007•15 citations

Quantum coherence induces pulse shape modification in a semiconductor optical amplifier at room temperature

Mirco Kolarczik, Nina Owschimikow, Julian Korn +6 more

Coherence in light–matter interaction is a necessary ingredient if light is used to control the quantum state of a material system. Coherent effects are firmly associated with isolated systems kept at low temperature. The exceedingly fast dephasing in condensed matter environments, in particular at elevated temperatures, may well erase all coherent information in the material at timescales shorter than a laser excitation pulse. Here we show for an ensemble of semiconductor quantum dots that even in the presence of ultrafast dephasing, for suitably designed condensed matter systems quantum-coherent effects are robust enough to be observable at room temperature. Our conclusions are based on an analysis of the reshaping an ultrafast laser pulse undergoes on propagation through a semiconductor quantum dot amplifier. We show that this pulse modification contains the signature of coherent light–matter interaction and can be controlled by adjusting the population of the quantum dots via electrical injection. Quantum coherence effects are often only visible at low temperatures, where dephasing times are not too short. Here Kolarczik et al. show that quantum coherence effects can appear in the reshaping of ultrafast laser pulses passing through quantum dots even at room temperature.

Nature Communications•Dec 16, 2013•60 citations

Electromagnetically Induced Transparency in Semiconductor Quantum Wells

Mark C. Phillips, Hailin Wang

This chapter discusses advantage of the many-body Coulomb interactions to generate and manipulate nonradiative quantum coherences. It describes theoretically, the manifestation and behavior of electromagnetically induced transparency (EIT) processes in transient regimes. The chapter also discusses experimental demonstrations of EIT using excitons in gallium arsenide quantum-well structures. It shows that many-body Coulomb interactions between excitons can be exploited for the generation and manipulation of exciton spin coherence and biexciton coherence. The chapter provides the similarities and especially the essential differences in EIT processes between atomic and excitonic systems. It focuses on the changes in the absorption spectrum induced by EIT; these changes are also accompanied by corresponding changes in the refractive index. The absorption spectrum features a distinct EIT dip similar to that observed for cw excitations. The experimental setup for transient EIT studies was based on a standard transient pump-probe configuration, but with different pump and probe pulse durations.

CRC Press eBooks•Oct 3, 2018•0 citations

Coulomb corrections to the slowdown factor in quantum-dot quantum coherence

S. Michael, Chi‐Wai Chow, Hans Christian Schneider

Quantum-coherence induced group-velocity slowdown in a semiconductor quantum-dot structure is investigated using a many-body theory. The predictions are found to be noticeably different from those obtained in the independent-particle treatment typically used for describing atomic quantum coherence. In particular, Hartree-Fock renormalizations can lead to over two orders of magnitude reduction in the predicted pump intensity requirement for group-velocity slowdown to occur. Results are presented for the slowdown factor and slowdown-bandwidth product in a pulsed InAs–GaAs quantum-dot Λ scheme.

Applied Physics Letters•Oct 30, 2006•12 citations

Coherent light matter interactions in nanostructure based active semiconductor waveguides operating at room temperature

G. Eisenstein, Johann Peter Reithmaier, Amir Capua +4 more

Light matter coherent interactions require that the coherent state induced in the matter be maintained for the duration of the observation. The only way to induce and observe such interactions in room temperature semiconductors, where the coherence time is of the order of a few hundred femtoseconds, is to use ultrashort pulse excitations and an ultrafast characterization technique. For media comprising an ensemble of nanostructure semiconductors such as self-assembled quantum dots, the gain broadening inhomogeneity also affects the interaction. Moreover, when gain media in the form of an active waveguide, such as optical amplifiers, are used, the interaction is distributed and includes nonresonant incoherent phenomena that occur simultaneously with the coherent effects. Such a complex system can exhibit, nevertheless, clear coherent interactions even at room temperature. Using InAs/InP quantum dot and wirelike quantum dash amplifiers, Rabi oscillations, self-induced transparency, coherent control using spectral pulse shaping, Ramsey interference, and photon echo have been demonstrated. The characterization employed cross frequency resolved optical gating, and the experiments were accompanied by a comprehensive finite difference time domain model that solves the Maxwell and Lindblad equations. This work has major implications on the understanding of the details of dynamical processes in active semiconductor devices, on short pulse generation from semiconductor lasers, and on various future quantum devices.

Applied Physics Reviews•Dec 1, 2019•4 citations
This paper explores quantum-coherence phenomena in a semiconductor quantum-dot structure. The calculations predict the occurrence of inversionless gain, electromagnetically induced transparency, and refractive-index enhancement in the transient regime for dephasing rates typical under room temperature and high excitation conditions. They also indicate deviations from atomic systems because of strong many-body effects. Specifically, Coulomb interaction involving states of the quantum dots and the continuum belonging to the surrounding quantum well leads to collision-induced population redistribution and many-body energy and field renormalizations that modify the magnitude, spectral shape, and time dependence of quantum-coherence effects.
A many-body theory for quantum coherence in a semiconductor quantum-dot system is presented. We present the theory in detail for a Λ scheme in a InGaAs–GaAs quantum dot with a pulsed drive field. The paper shows the significant differences in the predictions of this theory and those of an independent-particle treatment, adapted from atomic quantum coherence theory. Specifically, the influence of the quantum-dot level structure on group-velocity slowdown is discussed, and the influence of different Coulomb renormalization effects is analysed.
Coherence in light–matter interaction is a necessary ingredient if light is used to control the quantum state of a material system. Coherent effects are firmly associated with isolated systems kept at low temperature. The exceedingly fast dephasing in condensed matter environments, in particular at elevated temperatures, may well erase all coherent information in the material at timescales shorter than a laser excitation pulse. Here we show for an ensemble of semiconductor quantum dots that even in the presence of ultrafast dephasing, for suitably designed condensed matter systems quantum-coherent effects are robust enough to be observable at room temperature. Our conclusions are based on an analysis of the reshaping an ultrafast laser pulse undergoes on propagation through a semiconductor quantum dot amplifier. We show that this pulse modification contains the signature of coherent light–matter interaction and can be controlled by adjusting the population of the quantum dots via electrical injection. Quantum coherence effects are often only visible at low temperatures, where dephasing times are not too short. Here Kolarczik et al. show that quantum coherence effects can appear in the reshaping of ultrafast laser pulses passing through quantum dots even at room temperature.
This chapter discusses advantage of the many-body Coulomb interactions to generate and manipulate nonradiative quantum coherences. It describes theoretically, the manifestation and behavior of electromagnetically induced transparency (EIT) processes in transient regimes. The chapter also discusses experimental demonstrations of EIT using excitons in gallium arsenide quantum-well structures. It shows that many-body Coulomb interactions between excitons can be exploited for the generation and manipulation of exciton spin coherence and biexciton coherence. The chapter provides the similarities and especially the essential differences in EIT processes between atomic and excitonic systems. It focuses on the changes in the absorption spectrum induced by EIT; these changes are also accompanied by corresponding changes in the refractive index. The absorption spectrum features a distinct EIT dip similar to that observed for cw excitations. The experimental setup for transient EIT studies was based on a standard transient pump-probe configuration, but with different pump and probe pulse durations.
Quantum-coherence induced group-velocity slowdown in a semiconductor quantum-dot structure is investigated using a many-body theory. The predictions are found to be noticeably different from those obtained in the independent-particle treatment typically used for describing atomic quantum coherence. In particular, Hartree-Fock renormalizations can lead to over two orders of magnitude reduction in the predicted pump intensity requirement for group-velocity slowdown to occur. Results are presented for the slowdown factor and slowdown-bandwidth product in a pulsed InAs–GaAs quantum-dot Λ scheme.
Light matter coherent interactions require that the coherent state induced in the matter be maintained for the duration of the observation. The only way to induce and observe such interactions in room temperature semiconductors, where the coherence time is of the order of a few hundred femtoseconds, is to use ultrashort pulse excitations and an ultrafast characterization technique. For media comprising an ensemble of nanostructure semiconductors such as self-assembled quantum dots, the gain broadening inhomogeneity also affects the interaction. Moreover, when gain media in the form of an active waveguide, such as optical amplifiers, are used, the interaction is distributed and includes nonresonant incoherent phenomena that occur simultaneously with the coherent effects. Such a complex system can exhibit, nevertheless, clear coherent interactions even at room temperature. Using InAs/InP quantum dot and wirelike quantum dash amplifiers, Rabi oscillations, self-induced transparency, coherent control using spectral pulse shaping, Ramsey interference, and photon echo have been demonstrated. The characterization employed cross frequency resolved optical gating, and the experiments were accompanied by a comprehensive finite difference time domain model that solves the Maxwell and Lindblad equations. This work has major implications on the understanding of the details of dynamical processes in active semiconductor devices, on short pulse generation from semiconductor lasers, and on various future quantum devices.