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TEMPERATURE DEPENDENCE OF NONLINEAR REFRACTION, AND NOVEL BISTABLE OPTICAL DEVICES IN INDIUM-ANTIMONIDE.

Ralph S. Jameson

Published Jan 1, 1986• 0 citations
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Abstract

This dissertation presents the results of experimental research on the nonlinear refraction in InSb and the experimental demonstration of two nonlinear etalon devices using InSb as the active material. The first portion of the dissertation considers the Dynamic Burstein-Moss Shift model for nonlinearities in narrow-gap semiconductors. The physics and the equations are reviewed, and limitations in describing intensity dependent refraction in a semiconductor are considered. These limitations arise from the nonlinear dependence of charge carrier density upon irradiance. The second portion of the dissertation presents experimental measurements made on the nonlinear refraction of InSb at temperatures between 80 K and 182 K, for wavelengths from 5.75 μm to 6.10 μm, where the photon energy lay in the band tail below 100 cm⁻¹. Measurements of the linear absorption were first made with an infrared spectrometer for temperatures from 80 K to 300 K. The nonlinearity was measured by analyzing the transmission through InSb etalons. Nonlinear transmission curves were digitized and stored with an IBM PC-XT, then a curve fit was performed using the nonlinear refractive index as a fiting parameter. Observations are reported of increasing absorption, due in part to a thermal shift of the absorption edge. The second portion of the work presents the theory and demonstration of a bistable etalon using an edge-injected control beam. Plane-wave nonlinear etalon theory is used to describe the operation of such a device, illustrating the way in which switching and logic gate operation can be obtained. Two devices based on this concept are demonstrated: the 3-port device using a single control beam, and the 2SON gate using two control beams to perform two-input logic operation. The extension of the 2SON gate to an array of pixels, and some considerations for optimizing array performance, are considered. Two appendices follow the body of the dissertation, the first describing the preparation of the InSb etalon samples, and the second detailing several procedures for maintenance and operation of the CO laser used.

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IEEE Journal of Quantum Electronics•Feb 1, 1986•21 citations
This dissertation presents the results of experimental research on the nonlinear refraction in InSb and the experimental demonstration of two nonlinear etalon devices using InSb as the active material. The first portion of the dissertation considers the Dynamic Burstein-Moss Shift model for nonlinearities in narrow-gap semiconductors. The physics and the equations are reviewed, and limitations in describing intensity dependent refraction in a semiconductor are considered. These limitations arise from the nonlinear dependence of charge carrier density upon irradiance. The second portion of the dissertation presents experimental measurements made on the nonlinear refraction of InSb at temperatures between 80 K and 182 K, for wavelengths from 5.75 μm to 6.10 μm, where the photon energy lay in the band tail below 100 cm⁻¹. Measurements of the linear absorption were first made with an infrared spectrometer for temperatures from 80 K to 300 K. The nonlinearity was measured by analyzing the transmission through InSb etalons. Nonlinear transmission curves were digitized and stored with an IBM PC-XT, then a curve fit was performed using the nonlinear refractive index as a fiting parameter. Observations are reported of increasing absorption, due in part to a thermal shift of the absorption edge. The second portion of the work presents the theory and demonstration of a bistable etalon using an edge-injected control beam. Plane-wave nonlinear etalon theory is used to describe the operation of such a device, illustrating the way in which switching and logic gate operation can be obtained. Two devices based on this concept are demonstrated: the 3-port device using a single control beam, and the 2SON gate using two control beams to perform two-input logic operation. The extension of the 2SON gate to an array of pixels, and some considerations for optimizing array performance, are considered. Two appendices follow the body of the dissertation, the first describing the preparation of the InSb etalon samples, and the second detailing several procedures for maintenance and operation of the CO laser used.
This dissertation studies the physics of room-temperature optical nonlinearities in GaAs and their application to the optical logic gates. The microscopic origins of the room-temperature optical nonlinearities in GaAs are investigated experimentally and theoretically. The data of nonlinear absorption measurement are analyzed in the framework of a semiconductor plasma theory in combination with excitation-dependent line broadening. The importance of the plasma screening of the continuum-state Coulomb enhancement and band filling are emphasized for GaAs at room temperature. Optical bistability and optical logic gating are direct consequences of the nonlinear refractive index changes in etalons. The nonlinear index changes are directly measured by a new technique of observing the Fabry-Perot transmission peak shift using the self-photoluminescence as a broad-band source. The validity of a Kramers-Kronig technique under quasi-steady state conditions is crosschecked by an independent measurement of Δn under identical pumping conditions. Thermal index changes are also directly measured to establish the criteria on the temperature stability condition that is needed for reliable operation of devices based on dispersive nonlinearities. Optical logic gates based on dispersive optical nonlinearities may be the critical components of an all-optical computer in the future. Five optical logic functions are demonstrated in a nonlinear GaAs/AlGaAs MQW etalon. Specially designed dielectric mirrors are used to observe low-energy (3-pJ) operation of optical logic gates. Parallel operation using as many as eight optical logic devices is achieved with Wollaston prisms. Toward practical devices, optical logic gating using diode lasers is demonstrated in a setup much smaller than the usual argon-laser pumped dye laser setup. The cycle time of optical logic devices is limited, not by the switch-on time, but by the switch-off time which depends on the carrier relaxation rather than the switch-on time. To reduce the carrier relaxation time windowless GaAs is employed to take advantage of the faster surface recombination of carriers at the GaAs/dielectric mirror interface compared to that at the GaAs/GaAlAs interface. The speed and effectiveness of the windowless GaAs are compared with those of the proton-bombarded GaAs as optical logic gates.
Abstract Detailed comparisons are made of the results of two approaches to the problem of nonlinear refraction at frequencies just below the band edge in semiconductors. The physical origin o f the nonlinear dispersion is taken to be direct saturation of independent, T2-broadened band states in the first model discussed. In the second model the refraction associated with a dynamic Burstein-Moss shift of the absorption edge is considered. Both models predict an extremely large nonlinearity, X(3) ≈ 1 e. s. u., of importance in the field of dispersive optical bistability and consistent with experimental observations of bistability, two-beam differential gain and four-wave mixing.
InSb has been recognized in recent years as a very good material for nonlinear optical devices because of the extremely high nonlinear index of refraction near its band edge. It has proven valuable in investigating bistable optical etalon performance, and nonlinear processes in semiconductors. Numerous schemes for using bistable etalons as basic elements for optical logic and optical computing have been recently developed. Some considerations for using InSb as a material for developing optical bistable devices, and some design considerations for a method of applying bistable optical elements to array processing for do all optical computer are discussed.
We report the realisation of optically bistable switching and memory elements, and the transphasor Can all-optical transistor) in simple one element nonlinear Fabry-Perot interferometers made from the semiconductor InSb. These devices, which operate at 5 K and 77 K with mW powers from a cw CO laser between 5 and 6 μm rely on a strongly intensity-dependent refractive index discovered near the bandgap region of InSb and explained by bandgap resonant saturation. Switching speeds are shown to be < 500 ns in these first devices and operation to much shorter timescales is predicted. Operation at room temperature and in other semiconductors at other wavelengths remains a possibility and such devices offer considerable potential for all-optical switching in integrated optics and laser pulse control.
We report the observation of optical stability for a plane parallel semiconductor crystal which forms a Fabry-Perot interferometer using only the natural reflectivity of its surfaces. Nonlinear transmission is observed for cw laser intensities above ∼ 100 W/cm2 for radiation at 1895 cm−1 near the energy gap of InSb at 5 K. The effect is interpreted in terms of a very large intensity-dependent refractive index giving a 5λ/2 optical thickness change for an intensity of ∼2 kW/cm2. Clear bistability is seen in fifth-order interference, the first such observation above first order in an intrinsic, one-element system, in addition to regions exhibiting signal amplification. The same crystal also shows strong modulation of the transmission of one laser beam induced by a second, with real signal gain, thus demonstrating an ’’optical transistor.’’
We report the first observation of quasi-steady-state optical bistability in an InSb etalon at room temperature as a result of the generation of free carriers through two photon absorption of 10 μm radiation. Nonlinear tuning of the etalon through two free spectral ranges has been achieved, with bistability observed around the two cavity resonances. Switching from a low to high transmission state has been achieved in times less than 10 ns while switching in the opposite direction occurs within 50-100 ns. The experimental results have been successfully fitted to a numerical model of the device.