Phase control of Goos–Hänchen shift via biexciton coherence in a multiple quantum well

Abstract

The behavior of the Goos–Hänchen (GH) shifts of the reflected and transmitted probe and signal pulses through a cavity containing four-level GaAs/AlGaAs multiple quantum wells with 15 periods of 17.5nm GaAs wells and 15-nm Al0.3Ga0.7As barriers is theoretically discussed. The biexciton coherence set up by two coupling fields can induce the destructive interference to control the absorption and gain properties of probe field under appropriate conditions. It is realized that for the specific values of the intensities and the relative phase of applied fields, the simultaneous negative or positive GH shift in the transmitted and reflected light beam can be obtained via amplification in a probe light. It is found that by adjusting the controllable parameters, the GH shifts can be switched between the large positive and negative values in the medium. Moreover, the effect of exciton spin relaxation on the GH shift has also been discussed. We find that the exciton spin relaxation can manipulate the behavior of GH shift in the reflected and transmitted probe beam through the cavity. We show that by controlling the incident angles of probe beam and under certain conditions, the GH shifts in the reflected and transmitted probe beams can become either negative or positive corresponding to the superluminal or subluminal light propagation. Our proposed model may supply a new prospect in technological applications for the light amplification in optical sensors working on quantum coherence impacts in solid-state systems.