Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory

We employ ultrafast terahertz (THz) pulses to study the dynamical interplay of optically-induced excitons and unbound electron-hole pairs in GaAs/AlGaAs quantum wells. A distinct low-energy oscillator appears upon resonant excitation of heavy-hole excitons, linked to transitions between their internal degrees of freedom. Time resolving changes in the THz conductivity, we can observe dynamical transitions between conducting and insulating phases as excitons form or ionize on ultrashort timescales.