Electromagnetically Induced Transparency in Semiconductors via Biexciton Coherence

Abstract

We report an experimental demonstration and theoretical analysis of electromagnetically induced transparency in a GaAs quantum well, in which the absorption of an exciton resonance is reduced by more than twentyfold. The destructive quantum interference in this scheme is set up by a control pulse that couples to a resonance of biexcitons. These studies illustrate that many-particle interactions, which are inherent in semiconductors and are often detrimental to quantum coherences, can also be harnessed to manipulate these coherences.

Dressed excitonic states and quantum interference in a three-level quantum dot ladder system

“…For solid-state media, a significant issue is whether or not dephasing mechanisms are sufficiently suppressed for quantum interference effects to be manifest. In higher dimensional structures such as quantum wells, coherence and quantum interference effects in three-level ladder systems have also been observed [13,14]. In these systems, the dephasing rates are ∼ ps −1 [13,14], compared ∼ ns −1 excitonic dephasing rates in QDs.…”

“…In higher dimensional structures such as quantum wells, coherence and quantum interference effects in three-level ladder systems have also been observed [13,14]. In these systems, the dephasing rates are ∼ ps −1 [13,14], compared ∼ ns −1 excitonic dephasing rates in QDs. In addition to spontaneous emission, coupling of the discrete quantum states to a continuum of states with uncontrolled degrees of freedom can lead to detrimental dephasing.…”

Reducing the impact of inhomogeneous broadening on quantum dot based electromagnetically induced transparency

“…4 The broadening causes the probe and coupling laser fields to experience different detunings depending on the individual QD size and, as a result, the overall EIT features are smeared out. EIT was previously demonstrated in quantum well structures by exploiting excitonic effects 5 and, in Ref. 6, a similar scheme was used in QDs by selectively addressing a subpopulation of the QD ensemble.…”

Multicolor Stationary Light

“…Quantum coherence and interference (Scully & Zubairy, 1997) are leading edge topics in quantum optics and laser physics, and have led to many important novel effects, such as coherent population trapping (CPT) (Arimondo & Orriols, 1976;Alzetta et al, 1976;Gray et al, 1978), lasing without inversion (LWI) (Harris, 1989;Scully et al, 1989;Padmabandu et al, 1996), electromagnetically induced transparency (EIT) (Boller et al, 1991;Harris, 1997;Phillips et al, 2003;Fleischhauer et al, 2005;Marangos, 1998), high refractive index without absorption (Scully, 1991;Scully & Zhu 1992;Harris et al, 1990), giant Kerr nonlinear effect (Schmidt & Imamoglu, 1996), and so on. In particular, EIT, which can dramatically modify the absorption and dispersion characteristics of an optical medium, plays an important role in quantum optics.…”