Coherent population trapping of electron spins in a high-purity n-type GaAs semiconductor

In high-purity n-type GaAs under a strong magnetic field, we are able to isolate a lambda system composed of two Zeeman states of neutral-donor-bound electrons and the lowest Zeeman state of bound excitons. When the two-photon detuning of this system is zero, we observe a pronounced dip in the excited-state photoluminescence, indicating the creation of the coherent population-trapped state. Our data are consistent with a steady-state three-level density-matrix model. The observation of coherent population trapping in GaAs indicates that this and similar semiconductor systems could be used for various electromagnetically induced transparency type experiments.