Disorder mediated biexcitonic beats in semiconductor quantum wells.

Beats in the transient four-wave-mixing signal from strongly inhomogeneously broadened semiconductor quantum wells are observed. Based on their phase and polarization properties, the beats are assigned to biexcitons in the mesoscopically disordered material. With increasing excitation intensity a halving of the beat period is observed and is accurately reproduced by calculations including fifth-order contributions. \textcopyright{} 1996 The American Physical Society.