arXiv subjects

Yu. P. Efimov

Publications and source records attributed to Yu. P. Efimov.

18 recordsLinked to original sources

arXiv2025

Digital-Alloy Bragg Mirrors in High-Q Microcavities for Polariton Lasing

We present an approach to the molecular-beam epitaxy of high-Q planar GaAs-based microcavities in which the AlGaAs high-index layers of the distributed Bragg reflectors (DBRs) are replaced by short-period GaAs/AlAs superlattices (digital alloys) with similar optical properties. This design enables a significant reduction of interface roughness, precise control of the quarter-wavelength optical thickness and the effective Al content, suppression of the propagation of structural defects, and efficient tuning of intrinsic absorption at the polariton emission wavelength via optimization of the superlattice parameters. Using this approach, we fabricate a microcavity with a low polariton-lasing threshold of approximately 570 W/cm$^2$ and a high experimental quality factor of about 5.4 x $10^4$. This value exceeds by almost a factor of two the theoretical estimate obtained within an equivalent ternary-alloy model. We demonstrate that accurate modeling of the stop-band characteristics and the Q factor requires incorporating the modified electronic density of states in the superlattice, including quantum-confinement and excitonic effects.

cond-mat.mtrl-sci↗

arXiv2023

Optical coherence storage in dark exciton states using spin-dependent three-pulse photon echo

Extension of coherent response time is a desired goal in the field of all-optical information processing implemented in classical and quantum ways. Here we demonstrate how spin-dependent stimulated photon echo can be used to extend decay time of coherent signal from exciton ensemble. We experimentally studied photon echoes from excitons in a model single InGaAs/GaAs quantum well subject to transverse magnetic field. Field-induced quantum beats lead to oscillation of exciton population between bright and long-lived dark excitons. As a result, photon echo decays much longer with decay time attaining dark exciton lifetime in case of non-oscillatory regime.

cond-mat.mes-hall↗

arXiv2023

Magnetic field study of exciton nonradiative broadening excitation spectra in GaAs/AlGaAs quantum wells

Exciton excited states in the quantum well are studied via their effect on the nonradiative broadening of the ground exciton resonance. Dependence of the nonradiative broadening of the ground exciton state on the photon energy of additional laser excitation was measured. Applying magnetic field up to 6 T, we could trace the formation of Landau levels and evolution of the exciton states of size quantization in a 14-nm GaAs/AlGaAs quantum well. Sensitivity of the technique allowed for observation of the second exciton state of size quantization, unavailable for conventional reflectance and photoluminescence spectroscopy. Our interpretation is supported by the numerical calculation of the exciton energies of the heavy-hole and light-hole subsystems. The numerical problems were solved using the finite-difference method on the nonuniform grid. The ground Landau level of the free electron-hole pair was observed and numerically analysed. In addition to energies of the excited states, electron hole distances and exciton-light interaction constant was investigated using the obtained in the numerical procedure exciton wave functions.

cond-mat.mes-hall↗

arXiv2022

Nonlinear behaviour of the nonradiative exciton reservoir in quantum wells

Excitons and free charge carriers with large wave vectors form a nonradiative reservoir, which can strongly affect properties of bright excitons due to the exciton-exciton and exciton-carrier interactions. In the present work, the dynamics of quasiparticles in the reservoir at different areal densities is experimentally studied in a GaAs/AlGaAs quantum well using a time-resolved reflectance spectroscopy of nonradiative broadening of exciton resonances. The population of the reservoir is controlled either by the excitation power or by the temperature of the structure under study. The dynamics is quantitatively analyzed in the framework of the model developed earlier [Kurdyubov et al., Phys. Rev. B {\bf 104}, 035414 (2021)]. The model considers several dynamic processes, such as scattering of photoexcited excitons into the reservoir, dissociation of excitons into free charge carriers and the reverse process, carrier-induced exciton scattering into the light cone depleting the reservoir, thermally activated nonradiative losses of charge carriers. We have found that competition of these processes leads to highly nonlinear dynamics of reservoir excitons, although their density is far below the exciton Mott transition densities. Characteristic rates of the processes and their dependencies on the excitation power and the temperature are determined.

cond-mat.mes-hall↗

arXiv2022

Unveiling the electron-nuclear spin dynamics in an n-doped InGaAs epilayer by spin noise spectroscopy

We discuss the implications of a small indium content (3%) in a GaAs epilayer on the electron- and nuclear-spin relaxation due to enhanced quadrupolar effects induced by the strain. Using the weakly perturbative spin-noise spectroscopy, we study the electron-spin relaxation dynamics without explicit excitation. The observed temperature dependence indicates the presence of localized states, which have an increased interaction with the surrounding nuclear spins. Time-resolved spin-noise spectroscopy is then applied to study the relaxation dynamics of the optically pumped nuclear-spin system. It shows a multi-exponential decay with time components, ranging from several seconds to hundreds of seconds. Further, we provide a measurement of the local magnetic field acting between the nuclear spins and discover a strong contribution of quadrupole effects. Finally, we apply the nuclear spin diffusion model, that allows us to estimate the concentration of the localized carrier states and to determine the nuclear spin diffusion constant characteristic for this system.

cond-mat.mes-hall↗

arXiv2021

Dynamics and control of nonradiative excitons - free carriers mixture in GaAs/AlGaAs quantum wells

Dynamics of nonradiative excitons with large in-plane wave vectors forming a so-called reservoir is experimentally studied in a high-quality semiconductor structure containing a 14-nm shallow GaAs/Al$_{0.03}$Ga$_{0.97}$As quantum well by means of the non-degenerate pump-probe spectroscopy. The exciton dynamics is visualized via the dynamic broadening of the heavy-hole and light-hole exciton resonances caused by the exciton-exciton scattering. Under the non-resonant excitation free carriers are optically generated. In this regime the exciton dynamics is strongly affected by the exciton-carrier scattering. In particular, if the carriers of one sign are prevailing, they efficiently deplete the reservoir of the nonradiative excitons inducing their scattering into the light cone. A simple model of the exciton dynamics is developed, which considers the energy relaxation of photocreated electrons and holes, their coupling into excitons, and exciton scattering into the light cone. The model well reproduces the exciton dynamics observed experimentally both at the resonant and nonresonant excitation. Moreover, it correctly describes the profiles of the photoluminescence pulses studied experimentally. The efficient exciton-electron interaction is further experimentally verified by the control of the exciton density in the reservoir when an additional excitation creates electrons depleting the reservoir.

cond-mat.mes-hall↗

arXiv2020

Long-living dark coherence brought to light by magnetic-field controlled photon echo

Larmor precession of the quasiparticle spin about a transverse magnetic field leads to the oscillations in the spontaneous photon echo signal due to the shuffling of the optical coherence between optically accessible (bright) and inaccessible (dark) states. Here we report on a new non-oscillating photon echo regime observed in the presence of non-equal dephasing rates of bright and dark states. This regime enables the observation of the long-living dark optical coherence. As a simple mechanical analogy, we suggest a charged particle moving in the magnetic field through the medium with anisotropic viscous friction. We demonstrate the dark coherence retrieval in the spontaneous photon echo from excitons in the InGaAs/GaAs quantum well.

cond-mat.mes-hall↗

arXiv2019

Modelling and optimization of the excitonic diffraction grating

Periodical spatial modulation of the excitonic resonance in a quantum well could lead to the formation of a new highly directional and resonant coherent optical response -- resonant diffraction. Such excitonic diffraction gratings were demonstrated in epitaxially grown quantum wells patterned by the low-dose ion beam irradiation before or after the growth. In this paper we present a theoretical model of the resonant diffraction formation based on the step-by-step approximation of the Maxwell equation solution. The resulting theory allows us to reliably describe experimental data, as well as to predict the way to increase the diffraction efficiency.

cond-mat.mes-hall↗

arXiv2016

Inversion of Zeeman splitting of exciton states in InGaAs quantum wells

Zeeman splitting of quantum-confined states of excitons in InGaAs quantum wells (QWs) is experimentally found to depend strongly on quantization energy. Moreover, it changes sign when the quantization energy increases with a decrease in the QW width. In the 87-nm QW, the sign change is observed for the excited quantum-confined states, which are above the ground state only by a few meV. A two-step approach for the numerical solution of the two-particle Schroedinger equation, taking into account the Coulomb interaction and valence-band coupling, is used for a theoretical justification of the observed phenomenon. The calculated variation of the g-factor convincingly follows the dependencies obtained in the experiments.

cond-mat.mes-hall↗

arXiv2016

Excitons in asymmetric quantum wells

Resonance dielectric response of excitons is studied for the high-quality GaAs/InGaAs heterostructures with wide asymmetric quantum wells (QWs). To highlight effects of the QW asymmetry, we have grown and studied several heterostructures with nominally square QWs as well as with triangle-like QWs. Several quantum confined exciton states are experimentally observed as narrow exciton resonances with various profiles. A standard approach for the phenomenological analysis of the profiles is generalized by introducing of different phase shifts for the light waves reflected from the QWs at different exciton resonances. Perfect agreement of the phenomenological fit to the experimentally observed exciton spectra for high-quality structures allowed us to obtain reliable parameters of the exciton resonances including the exciton transition energies, the radiative broadenings, and the phase shifts. A direct numerical solution of Schrödinger equation for the heavy-hole excitons in asymmetric QWs is used for microscopic modeling of the exciton resonances. Remarkable agreement with the experiment is achieved when the effect of indium segregation during the heterostructure growth is taken into account. The segregation results in a modification of the potential profile, in particular, in an asymmetry of the nominally square QWs.

cond-mat.mes-hall↗

arXiv2015

Spin-noise-based magnetometry of an $n$-doped GaAs microcavity in the field of elliptically polarized light

Recently reported optical nuclear orientation in the $n$-doped GaAs microcavity under pumping in nominal transparency region of the crystal [Appl. Phys. Lett. $\mathbf{106}$, 242405 (2015)] has arisen a number of questions, the main of them concerning mechanisms of angular momentum transfer from the light to the nuclear spin system and the nature of the light-related magnetic fields accompanying the optical nuclear polarization. In this paper, we use the spin noise spectroscopy for magnetometric purposes, particularly, to study effective fields acting upon electron spin system of an $n$-GaAs layer inside a high-Q microcavity in the presence of elliptically polarized probe beam. In addition to the external magnetic field applied to the sample in the Voigt geometry and the Overhauser field created by optically oriented nuclei, the spin noise spectrum reveals an additional effective, "optical," magnetic field produced by elliptically polarized probe itself. This field is directed along the light propagation axis, with its sign being determined by the sign of the probe helicity and its magnitude depending on degree of circular polarization and intensity of the probe beam. We analyze properties of this optical magnetic field and suggest that it results from the optical Stark effect in the field of the elliptically polarized electromagnetic wave.

cond-mat.mes-hall↗

arXiv2015

Excitons in square quantum wells: microscopic modeling and experiment

The binding energy and the corresponding wave function of excitons in GaAs-based finite square quantum wells (QWs) are calculated by the direct numerical solution of the three-dimensional Schroedinger equation. The precise results for the lowest exciton state are obtained by the Hamiltonian discretization using the high-order finite-difference scheme. The microscopic calculations are compared with the results obtained by the standard variational approach. The exciton binding energies found by two methods coincide within 0.1 meV for the wide range of QW widths. The radiative decay rate is calculated for QWs of various widths using the exciton wave functions obtained by direct and variational methods. The radiative decay rates are confronted with the experimental data measured for high-quality GaAs/AlGaAs and InGaAs/GaAs QW heterostructures grown by molecular beam epitaxy. The calculated and measured values are in good agreement, though slight differences with earlier calculations of the radiative decay rate are observed.

cond-mat.mes-hall↗

arXiv2015

Multiple quantum beats of quantum confined exciton states in InGaAs/GaAs quantum well

Multiple quantum beats of a system of the coherently excited quantum confined exciton states in a high-quality heterostructure with a wide InGaAs/GaAs quantum well are experimentally detected by the spectrally resolved pump-probe method for the first time. The beat signal is observed as at positive as at negative delays between the pump and probe pulses. A theoretical model is developed, which allows one to attribute the QBs at negative delay to the four-wave mixing (FWM) signal detected at the non-standard direction. The beat signal is strongly enhanced by the interference of the FWM wave with the polarization created by the probe pulse. At positive delay, the QBs are due to the mutual interference of the quantum confined exciton states. Several QB frequencies are observed in the experiments, which coincide with the interlevel spacings in the exciton system. The decay time for QBs is of order of several picoseconds at both the positive and negative delays. They are close to the relaxation time of exciton population that allows one to consider the exciton depopulation as the main mechanism of the coherence relaxation in the system under study.

cond-mat.mes-hall↗

arXiv2015

Decrease of heavy-hole exciton mass induced by uniaxial stress in GaAs/AlGaAs quantum well

It is experimentally shown that the pressure applied along the twofold symmetry axis of a heterostructure with a wide GaAs/AlGaAs quantum well leads to considerable modification of the polariton reflectance spectra. This effect is treated as the stress-induced decrease of the heavy-hole exciton mass. Theoretical modeling of the effect supports this assumption. The 5\%-decrease of the exciton mass is obtained at pressure P=0.23 GPa.

cond-mat.mes-hall↗

arXiv2015

Nontrivial relaxation dynamics of excitons in high-quality InGaAs/GaAs quantum wells

Photoluminescence (PL) and reflectivity spectra of a high-quality InGaAs/GaAs quantum well structure reveal a series of ultra-narrow peaks attributed to the quantum confined exciton states. The intensity of these peaks decreases as a function of temperature, while the linewidths demonstrate a complex and peculiar behavior. At low pumping the widths of all peaks remain quite narrow ($< 0.1$ meV) in the whole temperature range studied, $4 - 30K$. At the stronger pumping, the linewidth first increases and than drops down with the temperature rise. Pump-probe experiments show two characteristic time scales in the exciton decay, $< 10$ps and $15 - 45ns$, respectively. We interpret all these data by an interplay between the exciton recombination within the light cone, the exciton relaxation from a non-radiative reservoir to the light cone, and the thermal dissociation of the non-radiative excitons. The broadening of the low energy exciton lines is governed by the radiative recombination and scattering with reservoir excitons while for the higher energy states the linewidths are also dependent on the acoustic phonon relaxation processes.

cond-mat.mes-hall↗

arXiv2014

Effect of irradiation by He+ and Ga+ ions on 2D-exciton susceptibility of the InGaAs/GaAs quantum-well structures

The effect of irradiation by 30-keV Ga+ and 35-keV He+ ions (in relatively small doses) on the excitonic reflectivity spectra of single InGaAs/GaAs quantum-well structures is studied. It is found that the irradiation results in decreasing intensity and broadening of the excitonic resonances in the reflectivity spectra for all the doses. It is shown that these changes are not related to a decrease of the exciton transition oscillator strength and, therefore, to the irradiation-induced destruction of the excitonic states, but can be rather ascribed to a common cause, namely, to inhomogeneous broadening of the excitonic resonances proportional to the exposure dose.A tentative model of the irradiation-induced broadening is considered, with the mechanism of the process being a consequence of scat-tering of the 2D excitons by structural defects associated with Ga(In) and As vacancies arising upon collisions of the high-energy ions with regular atoms of the crystal structure. The model is used to compare experimental dependence of efficiency of the Ga+-ion-induced broad-ening on distance of the quantum well from the irradiated surface with a similar dependence calculated using the Monte-Carlo technique. A discrepancy between the results of simulation and experimental data is discussed.

cond-mat.mes-hall↗

arXiv2014

Extremely low inhomogeneous broadening of exciton lines in shallow (In,Ga)As/GaAs quantum wells

We study radiative linewidth of exciton resonance in shallow In$_x$Ga$_{1-x}$As/GaAs single quantum wells as a function of indium concentration in the range $x=0.02...0.10$ and well thickness in the range $L_Z=1...30$ nm using the method of Brewster reflection spectroscopy. Record linewidths of heavy-hole exciton resonance of about 130...180 $μ$eV are measured in reflection spectra for single quantum wells with $L_Z=2$ nm and $x=0.02$ at temperature 9 K. In these spectra, the non-radiative linewidth including inhomogeneous broadening can be comparable or even less than radiative linewidth. It is shown that radiative linewidth weakly depends on $x$ and $L_Z$ in these ranges. In multiple-quantum-well Bragg structure with ten periods radiative linewidth exceeds inhomogeneous broadening by 4 times.

cond-mat.mes-hall↗

arXiv2006

Observation of Spin Relaxation Anisotropy in Semiconductor Quantum Wells

Spin relaxation of two-dimensional electrons in asymmetrical (001) AlGaAs quantum wells are measured by means of Hanle effect. Three different spin relaxation times for spins oriented along [110], [1-10] and [001] crystallographic directions are extracted demonstrating anisotropy of D'yakonov-Perel' spin relaxation mechanism. The relative strengths of Rashba and Dresselhaus terms describing the spin-orbit coupling in semiconductor quantum well structures. It is shown that the Rashba spin-orbit splitting is about four times stronger than the Dresselhaus splitting in the studied structure.

cond-mat.mes-hall↗