Four-wave mixing in quantum wells using femtosecond pulses with Laguerre-Gauss modes

We demonstrate theoretically and experimentally that four-wave mixing processes obey phase-matching conditions that determine not only the conservation of the photon energy and k-momentum but also the orbital angular momentum of light. We report on time-resolved four-wave mixing experiments performed on a CdTe/CdZnTe quantum well in both noncollinear and collinear configurations with Laguerre-Gauss beams. They demonstrate that the polarization wave which is induced in the material keeps memory of the excitation pulse orbital momentum. We show that in the collinear configuration, the large angular acceptance opens up new horizons for improving the spatial resolution in time-resolved experiments.