Anisotropy of heavy hole spin splitting and interference effects of optical polarization in semiconductor quantum wells subjected to an in-plane magnetic field

摘要

Strong effects of optical polarization anisotropy observed previously in thequantum wells subjected to the in-plane magnetic field arrive at completedescription within microscopic approach. Theory we develop involves two sourcesof optical polarization. First source is due to correlations between electronand heavy hole (HH) phases of $\psi $-functions arising due to electron Zeemanspin splitting and joint manifestation of low-symmetry and Zeeman interactionsof HH in an in-plane magnetic field. In this case, four possiblephase-controlled electron-HH transitions constitute the polarization effect,which can reach its maximal amount ($\pm $1) at low temperatures when only onetransition survives. Other polarization source stems from the admixture ofexcited light-holes (LH) states to HH by low-symmetry interactions. Thecontribution of this mechanism to total polarization is relatively small but itcan be independent of temperature and magnetic field. Analysis of differentmechanisms of HH splitting exhibits their strong polarization anisotropy. Jointaction of these mechanisms can result in new peculiarities, which should betaken into account for explanation of different experimental situations.