Abstract

Time-integrated and time-resolved foui-wave-mixing (FWM) techniques using ultrashort pulses have proven to be extremely powerful. tools for studying coherent processes and excitonic effects in semiconductors and semiconductor multiple quantum wells (MQWs). These techniques have provided considerable information about the time-dependent amplitude of the emitted FWM signal, but they provide no information about the time-dependent phase, and there have been few attempts to measure the polarization state of the FWM signal itself. Complete characterization of the emitted electromagnetic field, however, requires the measurement of the phase and polarization direction, as well as the amplitude, Moreover, it has been dearly demonstrated that both the phase¹ and the polarization² dynamics carry essential information about the optical interactions and the fundamental processes in the MQWs.

© 1997 Optical Society of America