Coherent control of the nonradiative decay of excitons in asymmetric quantum well structures

We theoretically propose coherent control of the nonradiative decay of excitons in infrared-coupled asymmetric quantum wells. This is done by (i) inducing intraband multiphoton quantum coherences between exciton states associated with three conduction subbands (E1, E2, and E3), and (ii) adjusting the contributions of these coherences using competition between one- and two-photon coupling of these states. The intraband excitonic transitions are caused by one or two infrared laser beams resonant with the intersubband transitions between E1, E2, and E3. We show that by tuning these beams to allow coupling of the E1–HH1, E2–HH1, and E3–HH1 excitons with different configurations one can coherently manipulate the quantum efficiency of exciton emission. In an asymmetric double ${\mathrm{G}\mathrm{a}\mathrm{A}\mathrm{s}/\mathrm{A}\mathrm{l}}_x{\mathrm{Ga}}_{1-x}\mathrm{As}$ quantum well this could lead to nearly complete destruction of the emission spectrum, or to the immunity of excitons from enhancement of their nonradiative decay rates via the intraband transitions. We discuss these effects in terms of coherent population trapping of excitons and show how field-coherent destruction effects influence the multiphoton excitonic coherences.