Double-slit versus single-slit behavior in the intersubband absorption of semiconductor heterostructures

Abstract

Structural coherent control is used to design open semiconductor heterostructures whose intersubband absorption displays either single-slit or double-slit quantum interference. In this theoretical study we show that in the ``double-slit'' structure, optical intersubband absorption of a light pulse can be modified by adjustment of the phase of a control field. By careful choice of the steady-state subband population via charge transport through the heterostructure, an incident pump pulse can either be amplified or attenuated. This coherent control mechanism is absent in the ``single-slit'' structure. Our results and physical interpretation are based on a microscopic self-consistent semiclassical theory of the light-matter interaction in semiconductors and the use of a gauge which allows direct physical interpretation of the electron kinetic equations.