Restrictions on the coherence of the ultrafast optical emission from an electron-hole-pair condensate

Phys Rev Lett. 2001 Dec 10;87(24):246403. doi: 10.1103/PhysRevLett.87.246403. Epub 2001 Nov 19.

Abstract

We report on the transfer of coherence from a quantum-well electron-hole condensate to the light it emits. As a function of density, the coherence of the electron-hole-pair system evolves from being full for the low-density Bose-Einstein condensate to a chaotic behavior for a high-density BCS-like state. This degree of coherence is transferred to the light emitted in a damped oscillatory way in the ultrafast regime. Additionally, the photon field exhibits squeezing properties during the transfer time. Our results suggest a new type of ultrafast experiments for detecting electron-hole-pair condensation.