Excitation of the spin density and current by coherent light pulses in quantum wells

Abstract

We study the orbital and spin dynamics of charge carriers induced by non-overlapping linearly polarized light pulses in semiconductor quantum wells (QWs). It is shown that such an optical excitation with coherent pulses leads to a spin orientation of photocarriers and an electric current. The effects are caused by the interference of optical transitions driven by individual pulses. The distribution of carriers in the spin and momentum spaces depends on the QW crystallographic orientation and can be efficiently controlled by the pulse polarizations, time delay and phase shift between the pulses, as well as an external magnetic field.