Heavy-hole and light-hole quantum beats in the polarization state of coherent emission from quantum wells

Author

Smirl, Arthur L. ; Chen, X. ; Buccafusca, O.

Author_Institution

Lab. for Photonics & Quantum Electron., Iowa Univ., Iowa City, IA, USA

Volume

35

Issue

4

fYear

1999

fDate

4/1/1999 12:00:00 AM

Firstpage

523

Lastpage

531

Abstract

Dual-channel spectral interferometry is used to measure the vectorial dynamics of the the four-wave-mixing signal from a GaAs-AlGaAs multiple quantum well when both heavy-and light-hole excitons are excited. The ellipticity, the orientation, and the sense of rotation of the polarization ellipse associated with this emission are observed to oscillate dramatically at the heavy-hole-light-hole quantum beat frequency. The qualitative nature of the beating can be described by a simple model based on the density matrix equations for two independent three-level systems without the inclusion of many body effects; however, these beats are superposed on a polarization that is dominated by many-body effects

Keywords

III-V semiconductors; aluminium compounds; excitons; gallium arsenide; light interferometry; light polarisation; multiwave mixing; semiconductor quantum wells; time resolved spectroscopy; vectors; GaAs-AlGaAs; GaAs-AlGas multiple quantum well; coherent emission; density matrix equations; dual-channel spectral interferometry; ellipticity; four-wave-mixing signal; heavy-hole quantum beats; independent three-level systems; light-hole quantum beats; many body effects; orientation; polarization ellipse rotation; polarization state; quantum wells; vectorial dynamics; Anisotropic magnetoresistance; Equations; Excitons; Four-wave mixing; Frequency; Optical interferometry; Optical polarization; Oscillators; Phase measurement; Quantum well devices;

fLanguage

English

Journal_Title

Quantum Electronics, IEEE Journal of

Publisher

ieee

ISSN

0018-9197

Type

jour

DOI

10.1109/3.753656

Filename

753656