Ultrafast adiabatic population transfer in p-doped semiconductor quantum wells

The light-induced adiabatic population transfer of holes from the heavy-hole (hh) to the light-hole (lh) band in p-doped semiconductor quantum wells is investigated theoretically. The exact analog to the population-trapped state (PTS) used in atomic and molecular adiabatic population transfer does not exist in a semiconductor due to the continuum of transition energies and the dynamic light-induced shifts thereof. However, it is found that the population transfer only requires an approximate PTS condition to be fulfilled. As for a possible observation of the effect, the transient creation of a hh exciton resonance at the expense of the lh exciton is predicted.