Coherent versus incoherent modulation of a resonant level: the effect of modulation noise on the propagation of light through quantum wells

The propagation of a weak light beam through a quantum well in the vicinity of tin excitonic resonance that is modulated harmonically in time at terah ertz frequency is considered. It is found that the reflection probability o f the light beam is considerably different in the cases of purely coherent versus Gaussian incoherent terahertz modulation, even in the limit of long coherence times. (C) 1999 Optical Society of America.