Coherent control of electron propagation and capture in semiconductor heterostructures

¹  Institut für Festkörpertheorie, Westfälische Wilhelms-Universität Münster - W.-Klemm Str. 10, 48149, Münster, Germany, EU
²  Department of Physics and Institute for Optical Sciences, University of Toronto - 60 St. George Street, Toronto, Ontario, Canada M5S 1A7
³  Department of Physical Chemistry, Universidad del País Vasco UPV-EHU - Bilbao 48080, Spain, EU
⁴  IKERBASQUE Basque Foundation for Science - Alameda Urquijo 36-5, 48011, Bilbao, Bizkaia, Spain, EU

Corresponding author: evgeny_sherman@ehu.es

Received: 12 September 2009
Accepted: 19 November 2009

Abstract

We theoretically study the use of quantum interference to coherently control the transverse direction in which carriers are optically injected in a semiconductor heterostructure, and the subsequent transport and capture of these carriers. We consider a structure consisting of three quantum wells, where carriers can be ejected from the middle one in a given direction by coherently controlled optical pulse excitations. After traveling through the barrier, electrons are slowed down by space-charge effects, and can be captured in the side wells by emitting a phonon. If the side wells are different, the coherent control of the injection can be monitored optically. We propose a design of a AlGaAs heterostructure for a possible experimental realization of the effects considered in this paper.