Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Preface
- 1 Central concepts in classical mechanics
- 2 Central concepts in classical electromagnetism
- 3 Central concepts in quantum mechanics
- 4 Central concepts in stationary quantum theory
- 5 Central concepts in measurement theory
- 6 Wigner's phase-space representation
- 7 Hamiltonian formulation of classical electrodynamics
- 8 System Hamiltonian of classical electrodynamics
- 9 System Hamiltonian in the generalized Coulomb gauge
- 10 Quantization of light and matter
- 11 Quasiparticles in semiconductors
- 12 Band structure of solids
- 13 Interactions in semiconductors
- 14 Generic quantum dynamics
- 15 Cluster-expansion representation of the quantum dynamics
- 16 Simple many-body systems
- 17 Hierarchy problem for dipole systems
- 18 Two-level approximation for optical transitions
- 19 Self-consistent extension of the two-level approach
- 20 Dissipative extension of the two-level approach
- 21 Quantum-optical extension of the two-level approach
- 22 Quantum dynamics of two-level system
- 23 Spectroscopy and quantum-optical correlations
- 24 General aspects of semiconductor optics
- 25 Introductory semiconductor optics
- 26 Maxwell-semiconductor Bloch equations
- 27 Coherent vs. incoherent excitons
- 28 Semiconductor luminescence equations
- 29 Many-body aspects of excitonic luminescence
- 30 Advanced semiconductor quantum optics
- Appendix Conservation laws for the transfer matrix
- Index
- References
24 - General aspects of semiconductor optics
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 05 January 2012
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Preface
- 1 Central concepts in classical mechanics
- 2 Central concepts in classical electromagnetism
- 3 Central concepts in quantum mechanics
- 4 Central concepts in stationary quantum theory
- 5 Central concepts in measurement theory
- 6 Wigner's phase-space representation
- 7 Hamiltonian formulation of classical electrodynamics
- 8 System Hamiltonian of classical electrodynamics
- 9 System Hamiltonian in the generalized Coulomb gauge
- 10 Quantization of light and matter
- 11 Quasiparticles in semiconductors
- 12 Band structure of solids
- 13 Interactions in semiconductors
- 14 Generic quantum dynamics
- 15 Cluster-expansion representation of the quantum dynamics
- 16 Simple many-body systems
- 17 Hierarchy problem for dipole systems
- 18 Two-level approximation for optical transitions
- 19 Self-consistent extension of the two-level approach
- 20 Dissipative extension of the two-level approach
- 21 Quantum-optical extension of the two-level approach
- 22 Quantum dynamics of two-level system
- 23 Spectroscopy and quantum-optical correlations
- 24 General aspects of semiconductor optics
- 25 Introductory semiconductor optics
- 26 Maxwell-semiconductor Bloch equations
- 27 Coherent vs. incoherent excitons
- 28 Semiconductor luminescence equations
- 29 Many-body aspects of excitonic luminescence
- 30 Advanced semiconductor quantum optics
- Appendix Conservation laws for the transfer matrix
- Index
- References
Summary
The optically generated excitations in semiconductors constitute a genuine many-body system. To describe its quantum-optical features, we have to expand significantly the theoretical models used so far. However, the important insights of Chapters 16–23 are already presented in a form in which most of them can directly be used and generalized to analyze central properties of the optical excitations in solids. As for atoms, the optical transitions in semiconductors are induced via dipole interaction between photons and electrons. We can thus efficiently construct a systematic quantum-optical theory for semiconductors by following the cluster-expansion approach.
One of the main differences from atoms is that the electronic excitations in semiconductors form a strongly interacting many-body system. Thus, we must systematically treat the arising Coulomb-induced hierarchy problem together with the quantum-optical one. Moreover, the coupling of electrons to lattice vibrations, i.e., the phonons, produces yet another hierarchy problem. In addition, in solid-state spectroscopy one often uses multimode light fields such that one cannot rely on the single-mode simplifications to study semiconductor quantum optics.
As shown in Chapter 15, the Coulomb-, phonon-, and photon-induced hierarchy problems have formally an identical structure. Thus, we start the analysis by investigating how semiconductor quantum optics emerges from the dynamics of correlated clusters. We first focus on the basic properties of the optical transitions in the classical regime. This means investigating the fundamental optical phenomena resulting from the singlets. The full singlet–doublet approach is presented in Chapters 28–30.
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- Semiconductor Quantum Optics , pp. 480 - 498Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2011