Polariton propagation in weak confinement quantum wells

Exciton-polariton propagation in a quantum well, under centre-of-mass quantization, is computed by a variational self-consistent microscopic theory. The Wannier exciton envelope functions basis set is given by the simple analytical model of ref. [1], based on pure states of the centre-of-mass wave vector, free from fitting parameters and "ad hoc" (the so called additional boundary conditions-ABCs) assumptions. In the present paper, the former analytical model is implemented in order to reproduce the centre-of-mass quantization in a large range of quantum well thicknesses (5a_B < L < inf.). The role of the dynamical transition layer at the well/barrier interfaces is discussed at variance of the classical Pekar's dead-layer and ABCs. The Wannier exciton eigenstates are computed, and compared with various theoretical models with different degrees of accuracy. Exciton-polariton transmission spectra in large quantum wells (L>> a_B) are computed and compared with experimental results of Schneider et al.\cite{Schneider} in high quality GaAs samples. The sound agreement between theory and experiment allows to unambiguously assign the exciton-polariton dips of the transmission spectrum to the pure states of the Wannier exciton center-of-mass quantization.Comment: 15 pages, 15 figures; will appear in Phys.Rev.

Frequency-resolved optical grating using third-harmonic generation

We demonstrate the first frequency-resolved optical gating measurement of an laser oscillator without the time ambiguity using third-harmonic generation. The experiment agrees well with the phase-retrieved spectrograms

Phase retrieval and time-frequency methods in the measurement of ultrashort laser pulses

Recently several techniques have become available to measure the time- (or frequency-) dependent intensity and phase of ultrashort laser pulses. One of these, Frequency-Resolved Optical Gating (FROG), is rigorous and has achieved single-laser-shot operation. FROG combines the concepts of time-frequency analysis in the form of spectrogram generation (in order to create a two-dimensional problem), and uses a phase-retrieval-based algorithm to invert the experimental data to yield the intensity and phase of the laboratory laser pulse. In FROG it is easy to generate a spectrogram of the unknown signal, and inversion of the spectrogram to recover the signal is the main goal. Because the temporal width of a femtosecond laser pulse is much shorter than anything achievable by electronics, FROG uses the pulse to measure itself. In FROG, the laser pulse is split into two replicas of itself by a partially reflecting beamsplitter, and the two replicas interact with each other in a medium with an instantaneous nonlinear-optical response. This interaction generates a signal field that is then frequency-resolved using a spectrometer. The spectrum of the signal field is measured for all relevant values of the temporal delay between the two pulses. Here, the authors employ FROG and FROG related techniques to measure the time-dependent intensity and phase of an ultrashort laser pulse

Frequency-resolved optical grating using surface third-harmonic generation

We demonstrate the frequency-resolved optical grating technique using third-harmonic generation on the surface of a cover glass with ultra-short optical pulses and compare that with the phase-retrieved spectrogram