Dephasing in the presence of a two-dimensional electron gas at high magnetic fields

Abstract

By means of degenerate four-wave mixing (FWM), we investigate the quantum coherence of electron–hole pairs in the presence of a two-dimensional electron gas in modulation-doped GaAs–AlGaAs quantum wells in the regime of the integer quantum-Hall effect. We observe large jumps in the decay time of the FWM signal at even Landau level filling factors. The main features of the experimental observations can be qualitatively reproduced by a model which takes into account the number of unoccupied states within the highest partially occupied Landau level. Furthermore, we observe quantum beats between up to three different Landau level transitions.