Coherent control of free-carrier density in GaAs

Summary form only given.Coherent control is the exploitation of interference between two or more optically excited quantum mechanical pathways to manipulate the final state of a physical system. Recently it has been used to control exciton populations in GaAs-AlGaAs quantum wells at 4 K via phase-related 805-nm 100-fs pulses and to generate electrical current in bulk GaAs at 295 K via 1.55 /spl mu/m and 0.775 /spl mu/m, 175 to 1000-fs pulses. We consider here the coherent control of electron-hole density in GaAs at 295 K via the interference of single- and two-photon band-to-band generation processes.