The dynamics of charge currents ballistically injected in GaAs bulk and quantum wells are spatially and temporally resolved. The electrons and holes are injected with oppositely directed velocities without the use of accelerating fields by quantum interference between two photon absorption of a , fundamental pulse and one photon absorption of the corresponding second harmonic pulse. The subsequent charge motion is followed with temporal and spatial resolution by using tightly focused optical differential transmission techniques that are dependent on the relative phase of the incident pump pulses. Initially, the electrons and holes ballistically separate by up to , and a space charge field forms, which decelerates the carriers. Within this regime, the momentum relaxes by electron-hole and phonon scatterings, and the space charge field restores the electrons and holes to a common position; on time scales long compared to , ambipolar diffusion and recombination complete the return of the system to equilibrium. A rigid shift (damped simple harmonic oscillator) model for the electron motion reproduces the key features in the data, and the procedure for extracting the spatiotemporal dynamics of the electrons is shown to be immune to energy relaxation effects and forgiving of nonlinear saturation.
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1 March 2008
Research Article|
March 10 2008
Dynamics of charge currents ballistically injected in GaAs by quantum interference
Hui Zhao;
Hui Zhao
a)
1Laboratory for Photonics & Quantum Electronics, 138 IATL,
University of Iowa Iowa City
, Iowa 52242, USA
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Eric J. Loren;
Eric J. Loren
1Laboratory for Photonics & Quantum Electronics, 138 IATL,
University of Iowa Iowa City
, Iowa 52242, USA
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Arthur L. Smirl;
Arthur L. Smirl
b)
1Laboratory for Photonics & Quantum Electronics, 138 IATL,
University of Iowa Iowa City
, Iowa 52242, USA
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H. M. van Driel
H. M. van Driel
2Department of Physics and Institute for Optical Sciences,
University of Toronto
, Toronto M5S1A7, Canada
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a)
Current address: Department of Physics and Astronomy, University of Kansas, Lawrence, KS 66045.
b)
Electronic mail: [email protected].
J. Appl. Phys. 103, 053510 (2008)
Article history
Received:
June 28 2007
Accepted:
December 04 2007
Citation
Hui Zhao, Eric J. Loren, Arthur L. Smirl, H. M. van Driel; Dynamics of charge currents ballistically injected in GaAs by quantum interference. J. Appl. Phys. 1 March 2008; 103 (5): 053510. https://doi.org/10.1063/1.2840119
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