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Pure and Applied Optics Journal of the European Optical Society Part A

Coherent versus incoherent resonant emission: an experimental method for easy discrimination and measurement

Simone Ceccherini, M. Colocci, Massimo Gurioli, Franco Bogani

Published Nov 1, 1998• 1 citation
Publisher

Abstract

The distinction between the coherent and the incoherent component of the radiation emitted from resonantly excited material systems is difficult experimentally, particularly when ultra-short optical pulses are used for excitation. We propose an experimental procedure allowing an easy measurement of the two components. The method is completely general and applicable to any kind of physical system; its feasibility is demonstrated on the resonant emission from excitons in a semiconductor quantum well.

DOI
10.1088/0963-9659/7/6/008

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The distinction between the coherent and the incoherent component of the radiation emitted from resonantly excited material systems is difficult experimentally, particularly when ultra-short optical pulses are used for excitation. We propose an experimental procedure allowing an easy measurement of the two components. The method is completely general and applicable to any kind of physical system; its feasibility is demonstrated on the resonant emission from excitons in a semiconductor quantum well.
Using a novel technique, we simultaneously study the femtosecond dynamics of the amplitude and the coherence of resonant secondary emission from GaAs quantum wells. Two phase-locked pulses resonantly excite excitons in the semiconductor and the subsequently emitted radiation is detected by femtosecond up-conversion. In experiments at various delays and phases between the excitation pulses we identify three different contributions to the secondary emission with different coherence properties in time.
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The coherent and incoherent components of the resonant secondary emission from GaAs quantum well structures after ultrashort excitation have been studied as a function of the excitation density, lattice temperature, and inhomogeneous broadening by means of interferometric correlation techniques. We find that the coherent emission is thermally quenched and saturates with the excitation power. A good agreement is found within a simple classical model based on the inhomogeneous broadening of the excitonic band, including the experimental exciton-exciton and exciton-phonon induced dephasing.
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Summary form only given. The femtosecond dynamics and the coherence properties of resonant secondary emission (RSE) from quantum wells is a subject of considerable current interest. We use a novel approach in which the sample is resonantly excited by a pair of phase-locked pulses, and the spontaneously emitted radiation is detected by femtosecond upconversion. This novel experimental technique allows us, for the first time, to investigate the temporal evolution and the coherence properties of RSE simultaneously.
The interaction between a coherently oscillating radiation field, such as is generally encountered in micro-wave experiments, and a number of similar atomic systems coupled to the field through their electric dipole moments is analyzed for the case of resonance between atomic system and field, with both the field and molecules treated quantum-mechanically. Expressions are derived for the expectation value of field strength and the energy, and comparison between the two makes it possible to distinguish between coherent and incoherent parts of the energy, the former having its counterpart in the expectation value of the field strength, while the latter has no such counterpart. Terms corresponding to induced and spontaneous emission are identified, and it is shown that the latter includes both coherent and incoherent components. Special situations related to masers and to the coherence of spontaneous radiation are discussed. The distinction between the behavior of correlated and uncorrelated states is examined, and it is shown that both the coherent emission from uncorrelated states and the incoherent emission from correlated states may be proportional to the square of the number of molecules. The phase of the field is predictable for the coherent emission but unpredictable for the incoherent emission.