Coherent Ballistic Motion of Electrons in a Periodic Potential

Electrons in bulk n-doped GaAs at a lattice temperature of 300 K are driven by ultrashort high-field transients of up to 300 kV/cm in the terahertz frequency range. In the lowest conduction band the carriers show coherent ballistic motion, which is detected via the THz field emitted by them. This partial Bloch oscillation is reproduced by a quantum-kinetic theory of coherent transport on ultrafast time scales.