Excitonic light-absorption and amplification bands in the presence of laser radiation

Abstract

We examine the absorption and amplification bands of a weak probe signal in the presence of Bose-Einstein condensation of excitons that emerges in nonequilibrium conditions in the field of coherent laser radiation with a wave vector k ₀. We assume that the detuning $\tilde \Delta$ from resonance between the energy ħω _ex (k ₀)+L ₀ of the exciton level, which is shifted because of exciton-exciton interaction, and the laser photon energy ħω _L , is generally nonzero. The elementary excitation spectrum consisting of the quasiexcitonic and quasienergy branches determines the optical properties of the system. When there is real induced Bose-Einstein condensation, at $\tilde \Delta = 0$ the two branches touch, as they do in spontaneous Bose-Einstein condensation. In virtual induced Bose-Einstein condensation, when $\tilde \Delta < 0$, instabilities emerge in the spectrum in certain regions of the k-space. These instabilities are caused by a real transformation of two laser photons into two extracondensate particles. Nonequilibrium extracondensate excitons strongly affect the absorption and amplification of the probe light signal. We show that light absorption is due to the quantum transition from the ground state of the crystal to the quasiexcitonic branch of the spectrum. On the other hand, amplification of the signal is caused by the transition from the quasienergy branch to the ground state of the crystal. The same transition can be explained by a real transformation of two laser photons into a vacuum photon of frequency ħcq and a crystal exciton with a wave vector 2k ₀−q. Finally, we show that the excitonic absorption and light-amplification bands are essentially anisotropic at $\tilde \Delta \approx 0$ and depend on the orientation of the vectors q and k ₀.