A Photon Assembly Line on a Semiconductor Quantum Well
Abstract
The lateral potential superlattice accompanying a surface acoustic wave on a semiconductor quantum well structure is employed to efficiently transform light into a long-lived electron-hole polarization that can be reassembled into photons after very long storage times. Both the location of the emission process on the sample and the storage-time can be chosen at will as the dynamical superlattice is able to transport the photogenerated excitations over macroscopic distances across the semiconductor sample. The ionization process of the photogenerated excitons in the piezoelectric fields of the sound wave can be directly observed by the absorption of a second sound wave probing the areal conductivity of the photogenerated charges.
- Publication:
-
Physica Status Solidi Applied Research
- Pub Date:
- November 1997
- DOI:
- 10.1002/1521-396X(199711)164:1<535::AID-PSSA535>3.0.CO;2-P
- Bibcode:
- 1997PSSAR.164..535R