Coherent ultrafast dynamics in the quantum Hall effect regime

We review recent investigations of the femtosecond non-linear optical response of the two-dimensional electron gas (2DEG) in the quantum Hall effect regime. We find that the time and frequency profile of the four-wave-mixing non-linear optical spectrum is strongly influenced by Coulomb correlations between the photoexcited electron–hole pairs and the 2DEG collective excitations. We discuss experimental and theoretical results showing non-Markovian memory effects in the polarization dephasing, and an optically induced time-dependent coupling between the two lowest Landau level magnetoexcitons.