Effects of intervalence band coherences on the coherently coupled heavy-hole–light-hole Stark shift in semiconductor quantum wells

A theoretical study of the coherently coupled heavy-hole–light-hole optical Stark effect in semiconductor quantum wells is presented. Based on a detailed investigation of the various many-body contributions to the Stark shifts, we identify a parameter regime in which the existence of intervalence band coherences (analogous to the nonradiative Raman coherence in three-level atoms) can be inferred from the coherently coupled heavy-hole–light-hole excitonic optical Stark shift. The analysis is performed for the third-order nonlinear optical regime $({\chi }^3$ regime), and is based on the dynamics-controlled truncation (DCT) formalism. It includes the relevant optical selection rules, excitonic and two-exciton-correlation (e.g., biexcitonic) effects.