Nonresonant coherent control: Intersubband excitations manipulated by a nonresonant terahertz pulse

We present an approach for controlling quantum coherences in condensed matter by interaction with a nonresonant optical control field. Coherent intersubband (IS) excitations of electrons in GaAs/AlGaAs quantum wells are manipulated by a strong nonresonant terahertz (THz) field as demonstrated by phase-resolved two-color two-dimensional spectroscopy. In the linear regime of IS response, we observe a THz-induced enhancement of the midinfrared (MIR) IS absorption and a dispersive perturbed free induction decay caused by a THz-induced blueshift of the IS polarization. In the regime of IS Rabi oscillations, the THz field causes pronounced phase shifts of the coherently emitted MIR field, while the IS Rabi frequency remains unaffected. Such behavior is accounted for by a full solution of the Maxwell-Bloch equations, treating the THz and MIR fields without approximations. Our control scheme paves the way for THz control of IS emitters and holds potential for an extension to other systems.