Theory of the nonlinear optical properties of semiconductors

Tohya Hiroshima

David C. Hutchings

H. Haug

L Li, Paula J. Edwards, W.N. Cheung

A theory for the nonlinear properties of optical-frequency conversion using nearly degenerate four-wave mixing in semiconductor lasers is presented for the first time. Because of pump depletion, the converted signal and the conversion efficiency depend on both the injected probe power and the frequency detuning. The relaxation resonance frequency and the damping rate are both related to the probe signal, especially for a high optical injection level. The theory is in good agreement with experiments.

H. Haug

The optical spectra of laser-excited semiconductors change with varying laser intensity. Close to exciton or biexciton resonances these optical nonlinearities are, e.g., large enough to obtain optical bistability. The cause for these large nonlinearities are many-body effects in the system of the electron-hole pair excitation. The use of nonequilibrium Green’s functions, or if a quasi-equilibrium exists of thermal Green’s functions, makes it possible to take radiative and Coulomb interactions consistently into account.

S. W. Koch, M. Kira, T. Meier

A microscopic many-body theory for the optical and electronic properties of semiconductors is reviewed with an emphasis on the role of correlation effects. At the semiclassical level, the semiconductor Bloch equations include many-body effects via bandgap and field renormalization as well as correlation contributions representing two electron-hole pair amplitudes, excitonic populations, and coupled interband and intraband coherences. These Coulomb interaction induced carrier correlations lead to characteristic signatures in nonlinear semiconductor spectroscopy. At the fully quantum mechanical level the dominant light-matter correlations are described by coupled semiconductor Bloch and luminescence equations. Excitonic emission properties of quantum well and microcavity systems are discussed, including effects such as coherent signatures in the secondary emission and coherent control of the emitted light.