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We report a comprehensive experimental study and detailed model analysis of the terahertz dielectric response and density kinetics of excitons and unbound electron-hole pairs in GaAs quantum wells. A compact expression is given, in absolute units, for the complex-valued terahertz dielectric function of intra-excitonic transitions between the 1s and higher-energy exciton and continuum levels. It closely describes the terahertz spectra of resonantly generated excitons. Exciton ionization and formation are further explored, where the terahertz response exhibits both intra-excitonic and Drude features. Utilizing a two-component dielectric function, we derive the underlying exciton and unbound pair densities. In the ionized state, excellent agreement is found with the Saha thermodynamic equilibrium, which provides experimental verification of the two-component analysis and density scaling. During exciton formation, in turn, the pair kinetics is quantitatively described by a Saha equilibrium that follows the carrier cooling dynamics. The terahertz-derived kinetics is, moreover, consistent with time-resolved luminescence measured for comparison. Our study establishes a basis for tracking pair densities via transient terahertz spectroscopy of photoexcited quasi-two-dimensional electron-hole gases., 14 pages, 8 figures, final version

Using three-pulse four-wave-mixing femtosecond spectroscopy, we excite a non-radiative coherence between the discrete Landau levels of an undoped quantum well and study its dynamics. We observe quantum beats that reflect the time evolution of the coherence between the two lowest Landau level magnetoexcitons. We interpret our observations using a many-body theory and find that the inter Landau level coherence decays with a new time constant, substantially longer than the corresponding interband magnetoexciton dephasing times. Our results indicate a new intraband excitation dynamics that cannot be described in terms of uncorrelated interband excitations., 5 pages, 5 figures, to appear in Phys. Rev. B Rapid Communications

We review recent investigations of the femtosecond non-linear optical response of the two-dimensional electron gas (2DEG) in a strong magnetic field. We probe the Quantum Hall (QH) regime for filling factors $\nu \sim 1$. Our focus is on the transient coherence induced via optical excitation and on its time evolution during early femtosecond timescales. We simultaneously study the interband and intraband coherence in this system by using a nonlinear spectroscopic technique, transient three-pulse four wave mixing optical spectroscopy, and a many-body theory. We observe striking differences in the temporal and spectral profile of the nonlinear optical signal between a modulation doped quantum well system (with the 2DEG) and a similar undoped quantum well (without a 2DEG). We attribute these qualitative differences to Coulomb correlations between the photoexcited electron-hole pairs and the 2DEG. We show, in particular, that intraband many-particle coherences assisted by the inter-Landau-level magnetoplasmon excitations of the 2DEG dominate the femtosecond nonlinear optical responce. The most striking effect of these exciton-magnetoplasmon coherences is a large off-resonant four-wave-mixing signal in the case of very low photoexcited carrier densities, not observed in the undoped system, with strong temporal oscillations and unusually symmetric temporal profile., Comment: 22 pages, 9 figures; review article to be published in Solid State Communications

Using 3-pulse four-wave mixing spectroscopy, we excite an intra-band coherence of the quantum Hall system. By comparison with an undoped sample (no two-dimensional electron gas) and high intensity measurements, we identify features in the 4-wave mixing signal from this coherence. A many-body theory is used to understand our results.

One of the first third-generation synchrotron light sources, the ALS, has been operating for almost a decade at Berkeley Lab, where experimenters have been exploiting its high brightness for forefront science. However, accelerator and insertion-device technology have significantly changed since the ALS was designed. As a result, the performance of the ALS is in danger of being eclipsed by that of newer, more advanced sources. The ALS upgrade that we are planning includes full-energy, top-off injection with higher storage-ring current and the replacement of five first-generation insertion devices with nine state-of-the art insertion devices and four new application-specific beamlines now being identified in a strategic planning process. The upgrade will help keep the ALS at the forefront of soft x-ray synchrotron light sources for the next two decades.

The ALS, a third-generation synchrotron light source at Berkeley Lab, has been operating for almost a decade and is generating forefront science by exploiting the high brightness of a third-generation source in three areas: (1) high resolving power for spectroscopy; (2) high spatial resolution for microscopy and spectromicroscopy; and (3) high coherence for experiments such as speckle. However, the ALS was one of the first third-generation machines to be designed, and accelerator and insertion-device technology have significantly changed since its conception. As a result, its performance will inevitably be outstripped by newer, more advanced sources. To remain competitive and then set a new standard, the performance of the ALS, in particular its brightness, must be enhanced. Substantial improvements in brightness and current have always been feasible in principle, but they incur the penalty of a much reduced lifetime, which is totally unacceptable to our users. Significant brightness improvements can be realized in the core soft x-ray region by going to top-off operation, where injection would be quasi-continuous and the lifetime objections disappear. In top-off mode with higher average current, a reduced vertical emittance and beta function, and small-gap permanent-magnet or superconducting insertion devices, one to two orders of magnitude improvement in brightness can be had in the soft x-ray range. These improvements also extend the high energy range of the undulator radiation beyond the current limit of 2000 eV. Descriptions of the upgrade and the important new science achievable are presented.

Macroscopically ordered arrays of vortices in quantum liquids, such as superconductors, He-II, and atom Bose-Einstein Condensates (BEC), demonstrate macroscopic coherence in flowing superfluids [1-4]. Despite of the rich variety of systems where quantum liquids reveal macroscopic ordering, experimental observation of a macroscopically ordered electronic state in semiconductors has remained a challenging unexplored problem. A system of excitons is a promising candidate for the realization of macroscopic ordering in a quantum liquid in semiconductors. An exciton is a bound pair of an electron and a hole. At low densities, it is a Bose quasi-particle. At low temperatures, of the order of a few Kelvins, excitons can form a quantum liquid, i.e., a statistically degenerate Bose gas and eventually BEC [5-9]. Here, we report the experimental observation of a macroscopically ordered state in an exciton system., 5 pages (2 col) including 4 figures

We have created a nonequilibrium population of antiferromagnetic spin-waves in Cr2O3, and characterized its dynamics, using frequency- and time-resolved nonlinear optical spectroscopy of the exciton-magnon transition. We observe a time-dependent pump-probe line shape, which results from excitation induced renormalization of the spin-wave band structure. We present a model that reproduces the basic characteristics of the data, in which we postulate the optical nonlinearity to be dominated by interactions with long-wavelength spin-waves, and the dynamics to be due to spin-wave thermalization., 4 pages, Revtex, with 3 figures embedded in the text

We develop a non-equilibrium many-body theory of the coherent femtosecond nonlinear optical response of the Fermi edge singularity. We study the role of the dynamical Fermi sea response in the time-evolution of the pump-probe spectra. The electron-hole correlations are treated nonperturbatively with the time-dependent coupled cluster cxpansion combined with the effective Hamiltonian approach. For short pulse durations, we find a non-exponential decay of the differential transmission during negative time delays, which is governed by the interactions. This is in contrast to the results obtained within the Hartree-Fock approximation, which predicts an exponential decay governed by the dephasing time. We discuss the role of the optically-induced dephasing effects in the coherent regime., 41 pages including 11 figs. Final version to appear in Phys. Rev. B

Accurate localization of proteins within the substructure of cells and cellular organelles enables better understanding of structure–function relationships, including elucidation of protein–protein interactions. We describe the use of a near-field scanning optical microscope (NSOM) to simultaneously map and detect colocalized proteins within a cell, with superresolution. The system we elected to study was that of human red blood cells invaded by the human malaria parasite Plasmodium falciparum . During intraerythrocytic growth, the parasite expresses proteins that are transported to the erythrocyte cell membrane. Association of parasite proteins with host skeletal proteins leads to modification of the erythrocyte membrane. We report on colocalization studies of parasite proteins with an erythrocyte skeletal protein. Host and parasite proteins were selectively labeled in indirect immunofluorescence antibody assays. Simultaneous dual-color excitation and detection with NSOM provided fluorescence maps together with topography of the cell membrane with subwavelength (100 nm) resolution. Colocalization studies with laser scanning confocal microscopy provided lower resolution (310 nm) fluorescence maps of cross sections through the cell. Because the two excitation colors shared the exact same near-field aperture, the two fluorescence images were acquired in perfect, pixel-by-pixel registry, free from chromatic aberrations, which contaminate laser scanning confocal microscopy measurements. Colocalization studies of the protein pairs of mature parasite-infected erythrocyte surface antigen (MESA)(parasite)/protein4.1(host) and P. falciparum histidine rich protein (PfHRP1)(parasite)/protein4.1(host) showed good real-space correlation for the MESA/protein4.1 pair, but relatively poor correlation for the PfHRP1/protein4.1 pair. These data imply that NSOM provides high resolution information on in situ interactions between proteins in biological membranes. This method of detecting colocalization of proteins in cellular structures may have general applicability in many areas of current biological research.