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physica status solidi (b)

Femtosecond dynamics of excitons in quantum wells and quantum well microcavities

H. Wang, Jagdeep Shah, Theo C. Damen, Loren N. Pfeiffer, J. E. Cunningham

Published Mar 1, 1995• 15 citations
Publisher

Abstract

Abstract Investigations of femtosecond dynamics of excitons in two different regimes are reported: 1. perturbative or weak coupling regime where the exciton decay is irreversible (i.e. excitons in quantum wells), and 2. non‐perturbative or strong coupling regime (i.e. quantum well excitons in microcavities) where the coherent exchange of energy between the coupled cavity and exciton modes dominates the femtosecond dynamics. In the perturbative regime, the first femtosecond luminescence measurements are reported, which show (i) a finite rise time for the emission from resonantly‐excited excitons and (ii) femtosecond quantum beats of heavy‐hole and light‐hole excitons. In microcavities, the first nonlinear measurements are reported, which show quantum beats from the coupled cavity‐exciton modes, and provide information about the system not available from linear measurements.

DOI
10.1002/pssb.2221880135

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Abstract Investigations of femtosecond dynamics of excitons in two different regimes are reported: 1. perturbative or weak coupling regime where the exciton decay is irreversible (i.e. excitons in quantum wells), and 2. non‐perturbative or strong coupling regime (i.e. quantum well excitons in microcavities) where the coherent exchange of energy between the coupled cavity and exciton modes dominates the femtosecond dynamics. In the perturbative regime, the first femtosecond luminescence measurements are reported, which show (i) a finite rise time for the emission from resonantly‐excited excitons and (ii) femtosecond quantum beats of heavy‐hole and light‐hole excitons. In microcavities, the first nonlinear measurements are reported, which show quantum beats from the coupled cavity‐exciton modes, and provide information about the system not available from linear measurements.
We present a coherent nonlinear optical study of composite exciton-cavity systems in the strong-coupling regime. Quantum oscillations in a transient four-wave-mixing response show the creation of a coherent superposition state between the two normal modes of the composite system and demonstrate in the time domain the coherent energy exchange between the exciton and cavity. The deep oscillation persists when the cavity resonance is far detuned from the exciton resonance. The result shows that dynamics of the nonlinear response can be in a nonperturbative regime while dynamics of the linear response remains in a perturbative regime.
Summary form only given. Optical interactions in semiconductor microcavities embedded with quantum wells enter a nonperturbative regime when the dipole coupling rate between the exciton and the cavity mode exceeds relevant decay rates. In this regime, coherent energy exchange between the exciton and the cavity mode, i.e. normal mode oscillation (NMO), takes place when the cavity mode is excited impulsively by a short laser pulse. Similar coherent oscillations have also been observed in transient four-wave mixing (FWM) responses. In this paper, we present experimental and theoretical studies on the nature of oscillations in these transient FWM responses. We show that, in contrast to earlier beliefs, oscillations in time-integrated transient FWM do not correspond to NMO of the exciton or photon populations. Theoretical studies further reveal that FWM arising from different physical mechanisms including band filling, excitation-induced dephasing, and renormalized electric fields is characterized by highly distinct coherent dynamics. Oscillations in transient FWM reflect interference between these coherent optical processes and can be used as a unique probe for exciton many-body interactions in the nonperturbative regime.
Summary form only given. In this paper we present time-resolved photoluminescence (PL) studies of biexcitons in GaAs quantum wells (QW) with femtosecond resolution. Using polarization selection rules for biexcitons, we separate the biexciton PL from the exciton PL while still retaining adequate time resolution. A surprising initial transient characterized by a finite rise and an extremely fast decay is revealed in the biexciton PL. We show that this initial transient stems from coherent quantum evolution of relative momentum of two excitons in the molecule, in sharp contrast to the initial dynamics of exciton radiative recombination. The initial transient also reflects a type of quantum beat that differs from the usual quantum beats in transient optical measurements.
We have used femtosecond optical spectroscopy to observe directly the vacuum Rabi oscillations associated with the coupled exciton-photon mode splitting in a semiconductor quantum microcavity. When the microcavity is impulsively excited by a coherent short optical pulse, the time-resolved emission from the cavity shows beats corresponding to the oscillation between cavity and exciton modes, with a decay corresponding to approximately twice the cavity lifetime. Interferometric pump-probe measurements clearly show the coherent evolution of the cavity polarization.
We have used femtosecond optical spectroscopy to observe directly the vacuum Rabi oscillations associated with the coupled exciton-photon mode splitting in a semiconductor quantum microcavity. When the microcavity is impulsively excited by a coherent short optical pulse, the time-resolved emission from the cavity shows beats corresponding to the oscillation between cavity and exciton modes, with a decay corresponding to approximately twice the cavity lifetime. Interferometric pump-probe measurements clearly show the coherent evolution of the cavity polarization.
We study the coherent time-resolved response of a semiconductor microcavity excited by an ultrashort light pulse. The cavity contains embedded quantum wells and quantum well excitons are strongly coupled to cavity photons. Two experimental situations are examined. We describe a linear regime when the exciting light pulse is weak. Further, a low-temperature pump-and-probe experiment in a nonlinear regime is analyzed, with a cw pump beam circularly polarized opposite to a weak ultrashort probe pulse in conditions yielding a bipolariton-mediated optical Stark effect. In both cases we examine the response of a single quantum well and contrast it with that of several quantum wells. In the latter case light is coupled only to a symmetric linear combination (bright exciton) of excitonic states in individual quantum wells. We find distinctive fingerprints of other linear combinations of exciton states (dark excitons). In the linear regime, in addition to a pattern of Rabi oscillations between the two polariton states, additional beating frequencies appear, related to dark states. In the nonlinear case, the bipolariton formalism outlined by Ivanov et al. [Phys. Rev. B 52, 11 017 (1995)] allows one to deduce a similar additional beating frequency and a splitting of bipolariton frequencies related to their dark or bright state character. This work identifies the effect of the microcavity parameters on its coherent response and determines the experimental conditions in which the influence of dark states may be observed.