Electromagnetically induced transparency in quantum dot biexciton–exciton cascaded scheme

We numerically investigated the electromagnetically induced transparency in the quantum dot biexciton–exciton scheme. Through calculating the density matrix equation in the steady state, we obtain the electromagnetically induced transparency absorption dip with different pump intensity and biexciton decay rate. The refractive index is also calculated. We analyze the biexciton energy renormalization and pump pulse intensity influencing on the EIT dip and the slow factor. The slow factor decreases from about 3000 to 2000 due to the renormalization. It shows better temperature stability for stronger confinement energy and smaller decay rate compared with quantum well.     

Coherent dynamics in InGaAs quantum dots and quantum dot molecules

We measure the dephasing time of the exciton ground state transition in InGaAs quantum dots (QD) and quantum dot molecules (QDM) using a sensitive four-wave mixing technique. In the QDs we find experimental evidence that the dephasing time is given only by the radiative lifetime at low temperatures. We demonstrate the tunability of the radiatively limited dephasing time from 400 ps up to 2 ns in a series of annealed QDs with increasing energy separation of 69–330 meV from the wetting layer continuum. Furthermore, the distribution of the fine-structure splitting δ₁ and of the biexciton binding energy δ_B is measured. δ₁ decreases from 96 to with increasing annealing temperature, indicating an improving circular symmetry of the in-plane confinement potential. The biexciton binding energy shows only a weak dependence on the confinement energy, which we attribute to a compensation between decreasing confinement and decreasing separation of electron and hole. In the QDM we measured the exciton dephasing as function of interdot barrier thickness in the temperature range from 5 to 60 K. At 5 K dephasing times of several hundred picoseconds are found. Moreover, a systematic dependence of the dephasing dynamics on the barrier thickness is observed, showing how the quantum mechanical coupling in the molecules affects the exciton lifetime and acoustic-phonon interaction.     

Self-consistent calculations of exciton, biexciton and charged exciton energies in InGaN/GaN quantum dots

We present theoretical calculations of the variation of exciton energies in truncated conical InGaN quantum dots (QDs) in a GaN matrix with dot size and indium composition. We compute the built-in strain-induced and spontaneous piezoelectric fields using a surface integral method that we have recently derived, and confirm that the built-in fields can be of the order of a few MV/cm, resulting in a spatial separation of the electrons and holes. The ground state wavefunctions of the exciton (X⁰), biexciton (2X⁰) and the two charged excitons (X⁻ and X⁺) are then calculated in the Hartree approximation, using a self-consistent finite difference method. We find that the electron–hole recombination energy is always blue-shifted for the charged excitons X⁻ and X⁺, with a further blue-shift for the biexciton, and this blue-shift increases with increasing indium content. We describe the trends in interband transition energy and the scale of the blue-shift with dot size, shape and composition. We conclude that spectroscopic studies of the exciton, charged excitons and biexciton should provide a useful probe of the structural and piezoelectric properties of GaN-based QDs.     

Nonlinear optical properties of biexciton states in GaN quantum disks

The ground state energy of an exciton and biexciton states, in a GaN/Al_xGa_1-xN quantum disk are investigated by the variation method, within envelope function and effective mass approximations. Exciton and biexciton binding energy, and the dipole moments related to the transition between ground, exciton and biexciton states, are calculated as a function of quantum disk geometry. The optical nonlinearity via the exciton and biexciton states is studied on the basis of a three level model through the density matrix formalism. The behavior of different terms of third order susceptibility χ⁽³⁾, are studied around resonance frequencies and for different geometries of disk. The effect of values of the decay rates on χ⁽³⁾ are studied. It is found that these values have remarkable effect on the second term of, χ⁽³⁾.     

Surface integral determination of built-in electric fields and analysis of exciton binding energies in nitride-based quantum dots

We present a simple analytical approach to calculate the built-in strain-induced and spontaneous piezoelectric fields in nitride-based quantum dots (QDs) and then apply the method to describe the variation of exciton, biexciton and charged exciton energy with dot size in GaN/AlN QDs. We first present the piezoelectric potential in terms of a surface integral over the QD surface, and confirm that, due to the strong built-in electric field, the electrons are localised near the QD top and the holes are localised in the wetting layer just below the dot. The strong localisation and smaller dielectric constant results in much larger Coulomb interactions in GaN/AlN QDs than in typical InAs/GaAs QDs, with the interaction between two electrons, J_ee, or two holes, J_hh, being about a factor of three larger. The electron–hole recombination energy is always blue shifted in the charged excitons, X⁻ and X⁺, and the biexciton, and the blue shift increases with increasing dot height. We conclude that spectroscopic studies of the excitonic complexes should provide a useful probe of the structural and piezoelectric properties of GaN-based QDs.     

Quantum Monte Carlo simulation of exciton–exciton scattering in a GaAs/AlGaAs quantum well

We present a computer simulation of exciton–exciton scattering in a quantum well. Specifically, we use quantum Monte Carlo techniques to study the bound and continuum states of two excitons in a 10 nm wide GaAs/Al_0.3Ga_0.7As quantum well. From these bound and continuum states we extract the momentum-dependent phase shifts for s-wave scattering. A surprising finding of this work is that a commonly studied effective-mass model for excitons in a 10 nm quantum well actually supports two bound biexciton states. The second, weakly bound state may dramatically enhance exciton–exciton interactions. We also fit our results to a hard-disk model and indicate directions for future work.     

On line shape of electromagnetically induced transparency in a multilevel system

We present a detail analysis of the line shape of electromagnetically induced transparency (EIT) in a Doppler broadened five level atomic system based on density matrix formalism. It has been shown that the velocity averaged EIT line shape in a multilevel system is very sharp. The effect of the ground state decay rates on the EIT peak has also been investigated. The linear and non-linear variations of the EIT line width (FWHM) for different pump and probe power ratios are shown. Considering the D₂ transition of ⁸⁵Rb atom the dependence of EIT width and height on pump power has been experimentally measured. Simulated spectra are compared with the experimentally obtained one. The effect of buffer gas on the EIT peak has also been observed experimentally as well as theoretically.     

Splitting of the electromagnetically induced transparency resonance on 85Rb atoms in strong magnetic fields up to the Paschen-Back regime

Electromagnetically induced transparency (EIT) resonance in strong magnetic fields of up to 1.7 kG has been investigated with the use of a 30-??m cell filled with an atomic rubidium vapor and neon as a buffer gas. The EIT resonance in the ?? system of the D₁ line of ⁸⁵Rb atoms has been formed with the use of two narrowband (??1 MHz) 795-nm diode lasers. The EIT resonance in a longitudinal magnetic field is split into five components. It has been demonstrated that the frequencies of the five EIT components are either blue- or red-shifted with an increase in the magnetic field, depending on the frequency ??_P of the probe laser. In has been shown that in both cases the ⁸⁵Rb atoms enter the hyperfine Paschen-Back regime in magnetic fields of >1 kG. The hyperfine Paschen-Back regime is manifested by the frequency slopes of all five EIT components asymptotically approaching the same fixed value. The experiment agrees well with the theory.     

Photoluminescence and excitation spectra of Cu(AlxGa1−x)S2 films grown by vapor phase epitaxy

Chalcopyrite Cu(Al_xGa_1−x)S₂ alloy films were successfully grown on GaP substrates by vapor phase epitaxy using metallic chlorides (CuCl, GaCl₃ and AlCl₃) and H₂S as source materials. Photoluminescence (PL) spectra of these films taken under a low excitation density using a super high pressure Hg lamp exhibited broad emissions in the orange region. Photoluminescence excitation (PLE) measurements revealed that these broad emissions are effectively excited at the photon energies of A- and the BC-exciton energies. Under the high excitation density using the pulsed XeCl laser, these alloy films showed the exciton related emissions composed of biexciton recombination, exciton-exciton and exciton-carrier scatterings. The influence of the compositional fluctuation was observed on the increase of the full-width at half maximum (FWHM) for the exciton related emission with increase in composition of x.     

Exciton-Boson Formalism in the Theory of Laser-Excited Semiconductors and Its Application in Coherent Four-Wave-Mixing Spectroscopy

By the use of a bosonization transformation and group-theoretical arguments, the Hamiltonian of an electron–hole–photon system in a laser-excited direct two-band semiconductor is transcribed into that of an exciton–photon system with the particle spins rigorously taken into consideration. It is shown that the third-order optical nonlinearities in the spectral region below the band edge have their microscopic origin in two-exciton correlations, which are expressed in terms of the effective exciton–exciton and anharmonic exciton–photon interactions. The dependence of the interparticle interactions on the spin states of quasiparticles is behind the polarization dependence of the semiconductor nonlinear optical response. On the example of the system of heavy hole excitons in quantum wells, grown from compounds with the zinc blende type of symmetry, it is demonstrated that the effective exciton–exciton interaction in two-exciton states with nonzero total spin is repulsive, while in zero-spin states it is attractive, which may result in the biexciton formation. The derived Heisenberg equations of motion for the exciton and biexciton operators form the basis for a theoretical study of the coherent four-wave-mixing in GaAs and ZnSe quantum wells. It is readily apparent from the equations that in different polarization configurations the coherent four-wave-mixing is generated by different ingredients of two-exciton Coulomb correlations: in the co-circular configuration, it is the interexciton repulsion, in the cross-linear configuration, the formation of the biexciton and its coupling to excitons, and in the collinear configuration, both of them jointly. The obtained expressions for the time-resolved and frequency-resolved four-wave-mixing signals adequately describe the main characteristics and various details of wave mixing phenomena, including a biexciton signature in the appropriate polarization configurations. Results of the work clarify the microscopic mechanism of the polarization dependence in coherent four-wave-mixing spectroscopy in semiconductor quantum wells.     

Role of localized excitons in the stimulated emission in ultra-thin CdSe/ZnSe/ZnSSe single quantum-well structures

Photo-pumped lasing properties have been investigated in a CdSe/ZnSe/ZnSSE single quantum wells (SQWs) with the well-layer thickness (L_W) of 1, 2 and 3 monolayer (ML). At 20 K, the laser threshold for the SQW withL_W = 1 ML was the lowest in spite of the smallest active layer thickness. The carrier (exciton) sheet density at the threshold (n)_thwas estimated to be as low as 7 × 10¹⁰cm⁻², which is well below Mott's screening density. Time-resolved photoluminescence has revealed that the localized biexciton band, whose peak energy agrees with the lasing peak, appeared on the low-energy side of the main PL peak at this level of carrier concentrations. Theoretical calculation has also shown that the localized biexciton recombination has to be taken into account for the lasing process. On the contrary, then_thvalues of the SQWs with 2 and 3 ML are 1 order of magnitude larger than that of the SQW with 1 ML. This may be due to the smaller oscillator strength of both localized excitons and localized biexcitons because of the larger inhomogeneous broadening, resulting in an increased carrier density for achieving optical gain sufficient to overcome the reflection losses.     

Biexcitonic absorption in a disk-shaped GaN quantum dot

The present work investigates the nonlinear optical properties of a GaN quantum dot in the disk limit via the exciton and biexciton states using the compact density matrix formalism. Based on this model, we calculate the ground state energy of the exciton and biexciton states by the variation method, within envelope function and effective mass approximations. Linear and nonlinear optical absorption (α ⁽¹⁾, α ⁽³⁾) and oscillator strengths attributed to the optical transitions are obtained. The details of the behaviour of α ⁽¹⁾ and α ⁽³⁾ around the resonance frequencies and for different quantum dot geometries are presented. It is found that the size of quantum dot and the optical intensity have a remarkable effect on the optical absorption, and the biexcitonic two-photon absorption coefficient(K ₂) has also been calculated in this system. The results show that this parameter is strongly affected by the size of the quantum dot.     

Two-photon excitation of confined biexcitons in CuCl quantum dots

We have studied direct creation processes of confined biexcitons in CuCl quantum dots by polarization-dependent resonant two-photon excitation spectroscopy. The two-photon absorption band for the lowest state of the biexciton (total angular momentum J=0) which appears on the lower energy side of confined exciton band was identified from the analysis of the polarization dependence of the photoluminescence excitation spectrum of the biexciton. Furthermore, the two-photon excitation process for the excited state of the biexciton (J=2) was also found with polarization dependence different from the J=0 biexciton state.     

Double-resonance optical-pumping effect and ladder-type electromagnetically induced transparency signal without Doppler background in cesium atomic vapour cell

In a Doppler-broadened ladder-type cesium atomic system (6S_1/2-6P_3/2-8S_1/2), this paper characterizes electromagnetically induced transparency (EIT) in two different experimental arrangements, and investigates the influence of the double-resonance optical-pumping (DROP) effect on EIT in both arrangements. When the probe laser is weak, DROP is explicitly suppressed. When the probe laser is moderate, population of the intermediate level (6P_3/2 F'=5) is remarkable, therefore DROP is mixed with EIT. An interesting bimodal spectrum with the broad component due to DROP and the narrow part due to EIT has been clearly observed in cesium 6S_1/2 F=4-6P_3/2 F'=5-8S_1/2 F"=4 transitions.     

铯6S1/2 -6P3/2 -8S1/2阶梯型系统中超精细能级的多重电磁感应透明

基于铯原子6S_1/2 -6P_3/2 -8S_1/2的阶梯型能级系统,对室温下铯原子气室中的电磁感应透明(EIT)谱进行了研究.由于探测光的频率锁定于基态6S_1/2(F=3)到中间态6P_3/2的超精细跃迁线上,耦合光在中间态6P_3/2和激发态8S_1/2之间扫描,得到的EIT谱具有平坦的背景,提高了光谱的精度.理论上,采用了一个多能级的EIT模型,将其计算结果与所观察的实验现象进行了比较,二者符合得比较好. 关键词： 电磁感应透明 光抽运 超精细结构 阶梯型系统     

Multiparticle states and the factors that complicate an experimental observation of the quantum coherence in the exciton gas of SiGe/Si quantum wells

The measured stationary and time-resolved photoluminescence is used to study the properties of the exciton gas in a second-order 5-nm-thick Si_0.905Ge_0.095/Si quantum well. It is shown that, despite the presence of an electron barrier in the Si_0.905Ge_0.095 layer, a spatially indirect biexciton is the most favorable energy state of the electron–hole system at low temperatures. This biexciton is characterized by a lifetime of 1100 ns and a binding energy of 2.0–2.5 meV and consists of two holes localized in the SiGe layer and two electrons mainly localized in silicon. The formation of biexcitons is shown to cause low-temperature (5 K) luminescence spectra over a wide excitation density range and to suppress the formation of an exciton gas, in which quantum statistics effects are significant. The Bose statistics can only be experimentally observed for a biexciton gas at a temperature of 1 K or below because of the high degree of degeneracy of biexciton states (28) and a comparatively large effective mass (about 1.3m _e ). The heat energy at such temperatures is much lower than the measured energy of localization at potential fluctuations (about 1 meV). This feature leads to biexciton localization and fundamentally limits the possibility of observation of quantum coherence in the biexciton gas.     

Electromagnetically induced transparency of single Λ-type three-level atom in high-finesse optical cavity

We study the features of the electromagnetically induced transparency (EIT) in a single Λ-type three-level atom placed in a high finesse cavity under the action of a coupling laser and a probe laser. Our calculations show that three transparency windows appear when the pump strength is big enough. It can be explained by the residual pump in the cavity resulting mostly in the energy splitting. Level |3〉is split into four slightly different energy levels. An interference takes place between excitation pathways. Furthermore, it is also shown that the frequencies of the EIT windows can be tuned by changing the coupling field detuning Δ₂ and the reflection profile is very sensitive to the cavity field detuning Δ_c.     

Atomic frequency offset locking in a Λ type three-level Doppler broadened Cs system

We here present a comparative study of frequency stabilities of pump and probe lasers coupled at a frequency offset generated by coherent photon-atom interaction. Pump-probe spectroscopy of the Λ configuration in D₂ transition of cesium is carried out to obtain sub-natural (∼2 MHz) electromagnetically induced transparency (EIT) and sub-Doppler (∼10 MHz) Autler-Townes (AT) resonance. The pump laser is locked on the saturated absorption spectrum (SAS, ∼13 MHz) and the probe laser is successively stabilized on EIT and AT signals. Frequency stabilities of pump and probe lasers are calculated in terms of Allan variance σ(2,τ) by using the frequency noise power spectrum. It is found that the frequency stability of the probe stabilized on EIT is superior (σ∼2×10⁻¹³) to that of SAS locked pump laser (σ∼10⁻¹²), whereas the performance of the AT stabilized laser is inferior (σ∼6×10⁻¹²). This contrasting behavior is discussed in terms of the theme of conventional master-slave offset locking scheme and the mechanisms underlying the EIT and sub-Doppler AT resonances in a Doppler broadened atomic medium.     

Coherent control in a single semiconductor quantum dot exhibiting excitonic and biexcitonic features

We have developed a simplified theoretical model to analyze the phenomenon of coherent control in a single semiconductor quantum dot excited by a pair of optical pulses. The first pulse populates a biexciton state by two-photon absorption while the second pulse generates population in the exciton state via deexcitation from the biexciton state. We have used density-matrix analysis for a 3-level system to calculate the time dependent biexciton and exciton state populations. The usual 9×9 matrix has been reduced to a 6×6 matrix. The time variation of the population in each state and it’s dependence on the pulse delay manifest coherent control. Numerical estimates made for In_0.5Ga_0.5As/GaAs single quantum dots qualitatively agree with the recent experimental results. PACS 78.67.Hc; 42.50.Md; 78.55.Cr     

High contrast <Emphasis Type="Italic">D</Emphasis><Subscript>1</Subscript> line electromagnetically induced transparency in nanometric-thin rubidium vapor cell

The electromagnetically induced transparency (EIT) on the atomic D ₁ line of rubidium is studied using a nanometric-thin cell with atomic vapor column length in the range of L=400–800 nm. It is shown that the reduction of the cell thickness by four orders as compared with an ordinary cm-size cell still allows to form an EIT resonance for L=λ=794 nm with the contrast of up to 40%. Further reduction of thickness to L=λ/2 leads to significant reduction of EIT contrast, verifying that the key parameter for EIT in wavelength-scale-thickness cells is not the value of L itself but L/λ ratio. Remarkable distinctions of EIT formation in nanometric-thin and ordinary cells are demonstrated. Well-resolved splitting of the EIT resonance in a magnetic field for L=λ can be used for magnetometry with nanometric spatial resolution. The presented theoretical model well describes the observed results.