Fluctuation properties of acoustic phonons generated by ultrafast optical excitation of a quantum dot

TL;DR

This paper theoretically investigates the fluctuation and squeezing properties of acoustic phonons generated in a quantum dot by ultrafast optical excitation, revealing how pulse timing and phase influence phonon squeezing.

Contribution

It introduces a detailed theoretical analysis of phonon fluctuation control and squeezing in quantum dots using ultrafast laser pulses, highlighting the role of pulse phase and delay.

Findings

Single pulse creates phonon wave packets with fluctuations above vacuum levels.

Two pulses can reduce phonon fluctuations below vacuum, achieving squeezing.

Phonon squeezing depends on phase and timing of the laser pulses.

Abstract

We study theoretically the fluctuation properties of acoustic phonons created in a semiconductor quantum dot after ultrafast optical excitation. An excitation with a single ultrafast pulse creates an exciton confined to the quantum dot, which is coupled to longitudinal acoustic phonons. This leads to the formation of a polaron in the quantum dot accompanied by the emission of a phonon wave packet. We show that the fluctuations of the lattice displacement associated with the wave packet after a single laser pulse excitation in resonance with the exciton transition are always larger than their respective vacuum values. Manipulating the exciton with a second pulse can result in a reduction of the fluctuations below their vacuum limit, which means that the phonons are squeezed. We show that the squeezing properties of the wave packet strongly depend on the relative phase and the time delay between the two laser pulses.