Polarization dynamics of the nonlinear coherent emission from uniaxially-strained quantum wells

We describe the first measurements of the dynamics of the amplitude, phase and polarization state of the coherent nonlinear emission from an anisotropic uniaxially-strained GaAs-AlGaAs MQW. We use time-resolved polarimetry to identify and to study two different links between the macroscopic changes in the vectorial nature of the emitted nonlinear signal and the microscopic materials processes. One source of the polarization changes is the anisotropy in the band structure introduced by the noncubic uniaxial strain.