title: Optical coherent control induced by an electric field in a semiconductor: a new manifestation of the Franz-Keldysh effect.
abstract: In (100)-oriented GaAs illuminated at normal incidence by a laser and its second harmonic, interference between one- and two-photon absorption results in ballistic current injection, but not modulation of the overall carrier injection rate. Results from a pump-probe experiment on a transversely biased sample show that a constant electric field enables coherent control of the carrier injection rate. We ascribe this to the nonlinear optical Franz-Keldysh effect and calculate it for a two-band parabolic model. The mechanism is relevant to centrosymmetric semiconductors as well.
authors.affiliation: JILA, National Institute of Standards and Technology, and the University of Colorado, Boulder, Colorado 80309, USA.
authors.forename: J K
authors.initials: JK
authors.lastname: Wahlstrand
authors.forename: H
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Zhang
authors.forename: S B
authors.initials: SB
authors.lastname: Choi
authors.forename: S
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Kannan
authors.forename: D S
authors.initials: DS
authors.lastname: Dessau
authors.forename: J E
authors.initials: JE
authors.lastname: Sipe
authors.forename: S T
authors.initials: ST
authors.lastname: Cundiff