Nonlinear absorption in n-i-p-i-MQW structures

Author

Ando, Hiroaki ; Iwamura, Hidetoshi ; Oohashi, Hiromi ; Kanbe, Hiroshi

Author_Institution

NTT Basic Res. Lab., Tokyo, Japan

Volume

25

Issue

10

fYear

1989

fDate

10/1/1989 12:00:00 AM

Firstpage

2135

Lastpage

2141

Abstract

Absorptive nonlinearity in a GaAs/AlGaAs n-i-p-i-MQW (multiple quantum well) structure consisting of alternating n-AlGaAs, i-GaAs/AlGaAs MQW, and p-AlGaAs layers is investigated. A change in the absorption coefficient of more than 4000/cm is obtained in the i-MQW layer with an extremely low excitation intensity on the order of 1 mW/cm ². The figure of merit for absorptive nonlinearity, σ _ch, defined as the change in the absorption coefficient induced by excitation of an electron-hole pair per unit volume, is experimentally evaluated to be 7×10^-13 cm², which is an order of magnitude larger than that for saturation of excitonic absorption in a conventional MQW structure. This experimental value agrees well with the theoretical estimation, which is calculated assuming an optical nonlinear process

Keywords

III-V semiconductors; aluminium compounds; excitons; gallium arsenide; light absorption; nonlinear optics; semiconductor quantum wells; semiconductor superlattices; GaAs-AlGaAs; absorption coefficient; absorptive nonlinear figure of merit; conventional MQW structure; electron-hole pair; electron-hole pair excitation; excitonic absorption; i-GaAs/AlGaAs; i-MQW layer; low excitation intensity; multiple quantum well; n-AlGaAs; n-i-p-i-MQW structures; nonlinear absorption; optical nonlinear process; p-AlGaAs layers; Absorption; Estimation theory; Nonlinear optical devices; Nonlinear optics; Optical bistability; Optical devices; Optical materials; Optical pumping; Optical saturation; Quantum well devices;

fLanguage

English

Journal_Title

Quantum Electronics, IEEE Journal of

Publisher

ieee

ISSN

0018-9197

Type

jour

DOI

10.1109/3.35727

Filename

35727