text: The THz fields can be applied to accelerate electrons out of their equilibrium. If this is done fast enough, one can measure the elementary processes, such as how fast the screening of the Coulomb interaction is built up. This was experimentally explored in Ref. where it was shown that screening is complete within tens of femtoseconds in semiconductors. These insights are very important to understand how electronic plasma behaves in solids.
  The Coulomb interaction can also pair electrons and holes into excitons, as discussed above. Due to their analog to the hydrogen atom, excitons have  bound states that can be uniquely identified by the usual quantum numbers 1s, 2s, 2p, and so on. In particular, 1s-to-2p transition is dipole allowed and can be directly generated by E(t) if the photon energy matches the transition energy. In gallium arsenide-type systems, this transition energy is roughly 4 meV that corresponds to 1 THz photons. At resonance, the dipole d defines the Rabi energy Ω = d E(t) that determines the time scale at which the 1s-to-2p transition proceeds.
  For example, one can excite the excitonic transition with an additional optical pulse which is synchronized with the THz pulse. This technique is called transient THz spectroscopy. Using this technique one can follow the formation dynamics of excitons or observe THz gain arising from intraexcitonic transitions.
  Since a THz pulse can be intense and short, e.g., single-cycle, it is experimentally possible to realize situations where duration of the pulse, time scale related to Rabi- as well as the THz photon energy ħω are degenerate. In this situation, one enters the realm of extreme nonlinear optics where the usual approximations, such as the rotating-wave approximation (abbreviated as RWA) or the conditions for complete state transfer, break down. As a result, the Rabi oscillations become strongly distorted by the non-RWA contributions, the multiphoton absorption or emission processes, and the dynamic Franz–Keldysh effect, as measured in Refs.
  By using a free-electron laser, one can generate longer THz pulses that are more suitable for detecting the Rabi oscillations directly.  This technique could indeed demonstrate the Rabi oscillations, or actually the related Autler–Townes splitting, in experiments. The Rabi splitting has also been measured with a short THz pulse and also the onset to multi-THz-photon ionization has been detected, as the THz fields are made stronger. Recently, it has also been shown that the Coulomb interaction causes nominally dipole-forbidden intra-excitonic transitions to become partially allowed.