Influence of radiative coupling on coherent Rabi intersubband oscillations in multiple quantum wells

The dependence of multiple quantum well intersubband Rabi oscillations on the radiative coupling between different quantum wells is investigated. We show that in a highly doped multiple quantum well sample, radiative coupling has a large impact on coherent density oscillations, even stronger than the impact of many-body effects. Specifically, radiative coupling can dominate nonlinear optical response, such as Rabi oscillations of subband populations, yielding distinctively different excitation behaviors in the different wells of a multiple quantum well sample. The magnitude of radiative coupling may be controlled by varying the angle of incidence of the external electric field. © 2006 The American Physical Society.