Abstract
We study the creation of high-efficiency controlled population transfer in intersubband transitions of semiconductor quantum wells. We give emphasis to the case of interaction of the semiconductor quantum well with electromagnetic pulses with a duration of few cycles and even a single cycle. We numerically solve the effective nonlinear Bloch equations for a specific double GaAs/AlGaAs quantum well structure, taking into account the ultrashort nature of the applied field, and show that high-efficiency population inversion is possible for specific pulse areas. The dependence of the efficiency of population transfer on the electron sheet density and the carrier envelope phase of the pulse is also explored. For electromagnetic pulses with a duration of several cycles, we find that the change in the electron sheet density leads to a very different response of the population in the two subbands to pulse area. However, for pulses with a duration equal to or shorter than 3 cycles, we show that efficient population transfer between the two subbands is possible, independent of the value of electron sheet density, if the pulse area is Π.
Highlights
The coherent interaction of electromagnetic fields with intersubband transitions in semiconductor quantum wells has led to the experimental observation of several interesting and potentially useful effects, such as tunneling-induced transparency [1,2], electromagnetically induced transparency [3], Rabi oscillations [4,5], self-induced transparency [5], pulsed-induced quantum interference [6], Autler-Townes splitting [7,8], gain without inversion [9], and Fano signatures in the optical response [10]
Using analytical solutions of the effective nonlinear Bloch equations [20], under the rotating wave approximation, we presented closed-form analytical solutions for the electric field amplitude of the electromagnetic field that leads to high-efficiency population transfer [24,25]
We numerically solve the effective nonlinear Bloch equations [20] for a specific double GaAs/AlGaAs quantum well structure, taking into account the ultrashort nature of the applied field, and show that high-efficiency population inversion is possible for specific pulse areas
Summary
The coherent interaction of electromagnetic fields with intersubband transitions in semiconductor quantum wells has led to the experimental observation of several interesting and potentially useful effects, such as tunneling-induced transparency [1,2], electromagnetically induced transparency [3], Rabi oscillations [4,5], self-induced transparency [5], pulsed-induced quantum interference [6], Autler-Townes splitting [7,8], gain without inversion [9], and Fano signatures in the optical response [10] In most of these studies, atomic-like multi-level theoretical approaches have been used for the description of the optical properties and the electron dynamics of the intersubband transitions. Their method was refined in a following publication where only linearly chirped pulses were used for high-efficiency population transfer [27] and was applied to three-subband quantum well systems [26]
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