Spin sensitive bleaching and monopolar spin orientation in quantum wells

Spin sensitive bleaching of the absorption of far-infrared radiation has been observed in $p$-type GaAs/AlGaAs quantum well structures. The absorption of circularly polarized radiation saturates at lower intensities than that of linearly polarized light due to monopolar spin orientation in the first heavy hole subband. Spin relaxation times of holes in $p$-type material in the range of tens of ps were derived from the intensity dependence of the absorption.Comment: Figures have been updated due to technical printing problems (Postscript mismatch

Fast detector of the ellipticity of infrared and terahertz radiation based on HgTe quantum well structures

We report a fast, room temperature detection scheme for the polarization ellipticity of laser radiation, with a bandwidth that stretches from the infrared to the terahertz range. The device consists of two elements, one in front of the other, that detect the polarization ellipticity and the azimuthal angle of the ellipse. The elements respectively utilise the circular photogalvanic effect in a narrow gap semiconductor and the linear photogalvanic effect in a bulk piezoelectric semiconductor. For the former we characterized both a HgTe quantum well and bulk Te, and for the latter, bulk GaAs. In contrast with optical methods our device is an easy to handle all-electric approach, which we demonstrated by applying a large number of different lasers from low power, continuous wave systems to high power, pulsed sources.Comment: 7 pages, 5 figure

Spin-dependent terahertz nonlinearities at inter-valence-band absorption in p-Ge

Abstract Far-infrared absorption and photon drag e!ect have been investigated in p-type germanium as a function of intensity of a high-power pulsed far-infrared molecular laser. Optical transmission shows saturation independent of the state of polarization of the radiation whereas in the photon drag e!ect a pronounced linear}circular dichroism occurs. Linear} circular dichroism is caused by spin-selective excitations as a result of selection rules and, equally important, multiphoton transitions with a rate comparable to one-photon absorption

Ionization of deep impurities by far-infrared radiation

An analysis is made of the ionization of deep impurity centers by high-intensity far-infrared and submillimeter-wavelength radiation, with photon energies tens of times lower than the impurity ionization energy. Within a broad range of intensities and wavelengths, terahertz electric fields of the exciting radiation act as a dc field. Under these conditions, deep-center ionization can be described as multiphonon-assisted tunneling, in which carrier emission is accompanied by defect tunneling in configuration space and electron tunneling in the electric field. The field dependence of the ionization probability permits one to determine the defect tunneling times and the character of the defect adiabatic potentials. The ionization probability deviates from the field dependence e(E)}exp(E2/Ec 2) (where E is the wave field, and Ec is a characteristic field) corresponding to multiphonon-assisted tunneling ionization in relatively low fields, where the defects are ionized through the Poole–Frenkel effect, and in very strong fields, where the ionization is produced by direct tunneling without thermal activation. The effects resulting from the high radiation frequency are considered and it is shown that, at low temperatures, they become dominant

Quantum ratchet effects induced by terahertz radiation in GaN-based two-dimensional structures

Photogalvanic effects are observed and investigated in wurtzite (0001)-oriented GaN/AlGaN low-dimensional structures excited by terahertz radiation. The structures are shown to represent linear quantum ratchets. Experimental and theoretical analysis exhibits that the observed photocurrents are related to the lack of an inversion center in the GaN-based heterojunctions

Resonant inversion of circular photogalvanic effect in n-doped quantum wells,

We show that the sign of the circular photogalvanic effect can be changed by tuning the radiation frequency of circularly polarized light. Here resonant inversion of the photogalvanic effect has been observed for direct intersubband transition in n-type GaAs quantum well structures. This inversion of the photon helicity driven current is a direct consequence of the lifting of the spin degeneracy due to k-linear terms in the Hamiltonian in combination with energy and momentum conservation and optical selection rules

Generation of far-infrared pulses by use of a passively mode-locked high-pressure CO_{2} laser

Our present study demonstrates for the first time generation of frequency-tunable intense infrared radiation pulses in the nanosecond time regime by mode-locking a high pressure CO2 laser using p-doped germanium as a saturable absorber. These pulses were transferred into the FIR region via stimulated Raman scattering of the CO2 laser radiation in CH3F resulting in subnanosecond FIR laser pulse