Acoustic phonon generation and detection in GaAs/Al_{0.3}Ga_{0.7}As quantum wells with picosecond laser pulses

摘要

Picosecond acoustic-phonon pulse generation and detection is investigated in a sample containing three GaAs/Al0.3Ga0.7As quantum wells of different thickness with an interferometric optical pump and probe technique. The pump photon energy is tuned through the hh1-e1 transitions of each well and the probe photon energy is chosen to allow the detection of the phonon pulses at the sample surface. The phonon pulse shapes are explained with a model that relates the carrier wave functions to the acoustic strain, and the acoustic strain to the detected optical reflectance and phase changes.