Self-Pulse-Shaping Coherent Control of Excitons in a Semiconductor Microcavity

The coherent control of the exciton population in quantum wells (QW's) is considered. For cavity-free QW's a $0\pi$ pulse leaves the QW empty of excitons subsequent to its passage. For the microcavity, in addition to certain $0\pi$ pulses, specially tailored pulses with nonzero area are also optimal. The coherent depopulation is a strong-coupling effect and is due to the $\pi$ phase shift in the self-consistent Maxwell field (i.e., including the local-field effect associated with the exciton resonance) in the cavity that occurs in the course of a vacuum-field Rabi flop.