Theory of coherent optical nonlinearities of intersubband transitions in semiconductor quantum wells

Year: 2023

Authors: Cominotti R., Leymann HAM., Nespolo J., Manceau JM., Jeannin M., Colombelli R., Carusotto I.

Autors Affiliation: Univ Trento, Pitaevskii BEC Ctr, CNR INO, I-38123 Trento, Italy; Univ Trento, Dipartimento Fis, I-38123 Trento, Italy; Univ Paris Saclay, Ctr Nanosci & Nanotechnol C2N, CNRS, UMR 9001, F-91120 Palaiseau, France.

Abstract: We theoretically study the coherent nonlinear response of electrons confined in semiconductor quantum wells under the effect of an electromagnetic radiation close to resonance with an intersubband transition. Our approach is based on the time-dependent Schrodinger-Poisson equation stemming from a Hartree description of Coulomb-interacting electrons. This equation is solved by standard numerical tools and the results are interpreted in terms of approximated analytical formulas. For growing intensity, we observe a redshift of the effective resonance frequency due to the reduction of the electric dipole moment and the corresponding suppression of the depolarization shift. The competition between coherent nonlinearities and incoherent saturation effects is discussed. The strength of the resulting optical nonlinearity is estimated across different frequency ranges from mid-IR to THz with an eye to ongoing experiments on Bose-Einstein condensation of intersubband polaritons and to the speculative exploration of quantum optical phenomena such as single-photon emission in the mid-IR and THz windows.

Journal/Review: PHYSICAL REVIEW B

Volume: 107 (11)      Pages from: 115431-1  to: 115431-12

More Information: We acknowledge financial support from the European Union FET-Open grant MIR-BOSE (Grant No. 737017) . The Trento team acknowledges support from the Provincia Autonoma di Trento. R.C. acknowledges funding from the European Research Council (ERC) under the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme (Grant Agreement No. 804305) . Continuous stimulating dis- cussions with J. Hawecker, S. Dhillon, M. Knorr, C. Lange, R. Huber, A. Tredicucci, G. Scalari, and J. Faist are warmly acknowledged.
KeyWords: Absorption; Enhancement
DOI: 10.1103/PhysRevB.107.115431

Citations: 4
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