Ultrafast nonlinear optical response of photoexcited Ge/SiGe quantum wells: Evidence for a femtosecond transient population inversion

Femtosecond time-resolved pump-probe spectroscopy is used to investigate the ultrafast carrier dynamics of Ge/SiGe quantum wells grown on a Si substrate. Pronounced nonequilibrium effects in the relaxation dynamics of the optically injected carrier distributions are observed and analyzed using a microscopic many-body theory. Transient population inversion and optical gain is obtained on a femtosecond time scale for excitation at energies slightly above the lowest direct quantum-well transition.