The Interplay of Intraband and Interband Polarization in the Ultrafast Response of Biased Semiconductor Superlattices

M.M. Dignama, M. Hawtonb, L. Yanga and B. Rosamc aDepartment of Physics, Queen's University, Kingston, ON, K7L 3N5, Canada bDepartment of Physics, Lakehead University, Thunder Bay, ON, P7B 5E1, Canada cInstitut für Angewandte Photophysik, Technische Universität Dresden, 01062 Dresden, Germany

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Received: 22 08 2004;

We present the results of a new excitonic formalism for the treatment of ultrafast dynamics in asymmetric semiconductor multiple quantum well structures. The method is infinite order in the optical field, with truncation of the infinite hierarchy of dynamical equations being accomplished via a factorization of six-particle correlation functions into a product of two- and four-particle ones. We use this formalism to calculate the THz emission and degenerate four-wave mixing signals from biased semiconductor superlattices under different excitation conditions. We present a number of density-dependent effects that demonstrate the central role that the intraband polarization plays in determining and modifying the nonlinear ultrafast response of the system.

DOI: 10.12693/APhysPolA.107.56 PACS numbers:78.47.+p, 42.65.Re, 78.67.-n