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Journal of Physics Conference Series

Separation of inhomogeneous and homogeneous broadening manifestations in InGaAs/GaAs quantum wells by time-resolved four-wave mixing

I. A. Solovev, Yury V. Kapitonov, Boris V. Stroganov, Yu. P. Efimov, Sergei A. Eliseev, S. V. Poltavtsev

Published Dec 1, 2018• 3 citations
Publisher

Abstract

Coherent dynamics of excitons in single InGaAs/GaAs quantum well was investigated experimentally. In order to carry out this study a three-pulse setup capable of measuring time-resolved four-wave mixing was build. Measured signal consists of two distinguishable components of similar amplitude corresponding to the fast decaying free polarization decay and the long-lived primary photon echo, which proves comparability of homogenous and inhomogeneous broadenings of the exciton resonance.

DOI
10.1088/1742-6596/1124/5/051042

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Coherent dynamics of excitons in single InGaAs/GaAs quantum well was investigated experimentally. In order to carry out this study a three-pulse setup capable of measuring time-resolved four-wave mixing was build. Measured signal consists of two distinguishable components of similar amplitude corresponding to the fast decaying free polarization decay and the long-lived primary photon echo, which proves comparability of homogenous and inhomogeneous broadenings of the exciton resonance.
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We report a comprehensive study of heavy-hole (HH) and light-hole (LH) excitons in a shallow GaAs/Al0.03Ga0.97As single quantum well (QW) using two-dimensional photoluminescence excitation (PLE) spectroscopy, reflectivity in Brewster geometry, and time-resolved four-wave mixing (FWM) with polarization-resolved photon echo (PE) detection. The PLE measurements reveal well-resolved HH and LH exciton states with minimal inhomogeneous broadening, while reflectivity spectra indicate strong light–matter coupling and narrow exciton linewidths, reflecting the high structural quality of the QW. FWM experiments demonstrate two-pulse photon echoes with coherence times of T2≈39.5 ps for HH and T2≈16.2 ps for LH excitons. Polarization-resolved PE confirms that the observed signals originate from pure three-level excitonic systems without contributions from trions or donor-bound excitons. Compared to conventional GaAs/Al0.3Ga0.7As QWs, the shallow QW exhibits reduced HH-LH splitting, enhanced optical homogeneity, and robustness against above-barrier illumination, making it a promising platform for coherent optical control and information photonics applications.
Summary form only given.The coherent response of excitons in semiconductor nanostructures, as measured in four wave mixing (FWM) experiments, depends strongly on the inhomogeneous broadening of the exciton transition. We investigate GaAs-AlGaAs single quantum wells (SQW) of 4 nm to 25 nm well width. Two main mechanisms are found to be important. First, the excitation-induced dephasing FWM signal (EID), which leads to a strong dependence of the signal on the angle between the linear input polarizations. The presence of the EID in the mainly homogeneously broadened sample (25 nm) is shown by the beating between EID and two-photon coherence (TPC) at the exciton for negative delay and co-linear polarized excitation. It vanishes for cross-polarized excitation, thus excluding the importance of local-field effects.
Maxwell equations for light incident on a quantum well at the exciton resonance frequency have been solved taking into account the inhomogeneous broadening of the exciton resonance. Inhomogeneous and homogeneous mechanisms of broadening can be easily distinguished in time-resolved reflection or transmission spectra where the inhomogeneous broadening causes Gaussian-like decay of the signal and oscillations. Experimentally predicted nonmonotonic time-resolved signal in transmission has been detected in a system of five GaAs/AlGaAs quantum wells.
We have studied picosecond two-pulse degenerate four-wave mixing in GaAs/AlAs quantum wells under different polarization configurations of the two pump beams and the analyzed optical polarization. We observe two components, a prompt free polarization decay (FPD) and a delayed photon echo (PE), which show different polarization rules and dephasing times. The observed polarization rules are consistently explained in a theoretical model. Within this model, the two-component behavior is a direct consequence of short-range disorder. The PE dephasing rate is associated with the homogeneous broadening of the excitons while the FPD corresponds to the total dephasing rate, consisting of the homogeneous and inhomogeneous (short-range and long-range) broadenings.