Terahertz‐induced extreme nonlinear transients in semiconductor quantum wells

Abstract

We demonstrate terahertz‐induced extreme nonlinear transients in GaAs/AlGaAs quantum‐wells via terahertz‐pump and optical‐probe experiments. The light‐hole and heavy‐hole excitonic resonances exhibit strong spectral modulations that fluctuate on a subpicosecond time scale as the pump‐probe time delay varies. Microscopic many‐body calculations reveal that the experimental observations contain pronounced signatures of ponderomotive contributions, the ac‐Stark effect, and terahertz high harmonic generations. (© 2009 WILEY‐VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim)