Coherent effects induced by static and time-dependent electric fields in semiconductors

Coherent effects are analyzed that are induced by homogeneous electric fields in photoexcited semiconductors. Extended semiconductor Bloch equations are presented, which include the applied electric field, in addition to the many-body Coulomb contributions in the time-dependent Hartree-Fock approximation. These equations are solved for a one-dimensional tight-binding model of a semiconductor superlattice. Linear and nonlinear optical signals associated with the coherent field-induced effects are calculated. For the case of a static electric field, the influence of the Coulomb interaction, which is treated on the Hartree-Fock level for a contact potential approximation, on the Bloch oscillations, and on their counterpart in the frequency domain, the Wannier-Stark-ladder, is analyzed. For a time-dependent electric field, dynamic localization, i.e., the localization of electrons due to an oscillating electric field, is analyzed. It is predicted that the dynamic localization should be observable in semiconductor superlattices even in the presence of Coulomb interaction.