  We study the orbital and spin dynamics of charge carriers induced by
non-overlapping linearly polarized light pulses in semiconductor quantum wells
(QWs). It is shown that such an optical excitation with coherent pulses leads
to a spin orientation of photocarriers and an electric current. The effects are
caused by the interference of optical transitions driven by individual pulses.
The distribution of carriers in the spin and momentum spaces depends on the QW
crystallographic orientation and can be efficiently controlled by the pulse
polarizations, time delay and phase shift between the pulses, as well as an
external magnetic field.
