Nonlinear polaritons in II-VI MQW heterostructures

The linear propagation of femtosecond pulses in the growth direction of exc ited II-VI semiconductor MQW heterostructures is studied by combining calcu lations of the nonlinear absorption of quantum wells from many-body theory with the transfer matrix method from classical electrodynamics. It is shown that the time-resolved transmission of the heterostructure is substantiall y modified in the presence of a nonvanishing quasi-equilibrium carrier dens ity which is accompanied by characteristic changes of the optical absorptio n and refractive index. (C) 2000 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.