Observation of the coherent Hall effect in a GaAs/AlGaAs semiconductor superlattice

Summary form only given. We investigate the dynamics of charge-carrier wavepackets in a GaAs/AlGaAs superlattice excited by femtosecond laser pulses. Applying a magnetic field perpendicularly to the growth direction (x-direction) of the superlattice forces all charge carriers undergoing Bloch oscillations to move perpendicularly to both the applied electric field and magnetic field. This represents a coherent Hall current, which is (neglecting dephasing) predicted to be composed of a time-independent term and a term which has an oscillatory time dependence.