Nonlinear optical properties of semiconductor quantum wells under intense terahertz radiation

The nonlinear optical properties of semiconductor quantum wells driven by intense in-planeterahertz electric fields are investigated theoretically by employing the extended semiconductorBloch equations. The dynamical Franz-Keldysh effect of the optical absorption near the band edgeis analyzed with Coulomb correlation among the carriers included. The in-plane terahertz fieldinduces a variety of behavior in the absorption spectra, including terahertz replicas of the (dark) 2pexciton and terahertz sidebands of the 1s exciton. The dependence of these interesting features onthe intensity, frequency, and phase of the terahertz field is explored in detail.