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Journal of Optical Technology

Photon avalanche in doped quantum wells: Up-conversion and the switching effect

E. Yu. Perlin, R. S. Levitskiĭ

Published Jan 1, 2006• 3 citations
Publisher

Abstract

This paper discusses the process of triggering photon avalanche in deep doped quantum wells. The threshold intensities of the IR light that causes the avalanche are hundreds of kilowatts per square centimeter. The energies for switching the system between states with strong and weak absorption of the pump light are tens of femtojoules per square micrometer.

DOI
10.1364/jot.73.000001

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This paper discusses the process of triggering photon avalanche in deep doped quantum wells. The threshold intensities of the IR light that causes the avalanche are hundreds of kilowatts per square centimeter. The energies for switching the system between states with strong and weak absorption of the pump light are tens of femtojoules per square micrometer.
A new mechanism of controlling the absorption of high-intensity signal light with frequency $\omega $ω and intensity jω{j_\omega }jω​jω by complementary control light with frequency $\Omega \gt {2}\omega $Ω>2ω and 2 or 3 orders of magnitude lower intensity jΩ{j_\Omega }jΩ​jΩ is proposed. The mechanism is based on the photon avalanche effect in quantum wells. The electron concentrations in size-quantization subbands and conduction band continuum and the absorbed power of signal light are obtained as functions of the intensities jω{j_\omega }jω​jω and jΩ{j_\Omega }jΩ​jΩ and the time of exposure to laser radiation tttt. It is established that the resulting dependences exhibit well-pronounced threshold behavior. For example, at jΩ  ∼  0.2−1  kW/cm2{j_\Omega }\;\sim\;{0.2 - 1}\;{\text{kW/cm}^2}jΩ​∼0.2−1kW/cm2jΩ∼0.2−1kW/cm2 and t  ∼  0.1−5  nst\;\sim\;{0.1 - 5}\;\text{ns}t∼0.1−5nst∼0.1−5ns, it is possible to control the absorption of signal light, so that the absorption of this light is practically lacking at intensities jω{j_\omega }jω​jω below the threshold intensity (${40 - 200}\;{\text{kW/cm}^2}$40−200kW/cm2) and becomes very strong at intensities above the threshold intensity. The case when control light $\Omega $Ω is the third harmonic of high-intensity signal light is also considered.
Here we report and discuss the avalanche-like up-conversion behavior in absence of the avalanche. We experimentally observed significant changes in the slope of the curve for the intensity dependence of up-conversion luminescence of erbium ions in the green band (520-560 nm) on the pump intensity of the diode laser. Such changes are typical for the photon avalanche. However, the concentration of erbium ions is insufficient for an efficient exchange of energy between them, and the excitation of a photon avalanche is not possible. Using a simple three-level approximation of the up-conversion process model, we have shown that the observed avalanche-like luminescence process can also occur in the absence of a photon avalanche due to the nonlinear relation between the efficiency of two pumping channels of erbium ions caused by the intensity dependence of the pump spectrum.
We have made an unexpected discovery of highly nonlinear optical behavior in certain praseodymium-doped lanthanum halides. When a LaCl3 or LaBr3 crystal containing Pr3+ ions is exposed to green laser radiation slightly in excess of a certain critical intensity, Pr fluorescence increases by orders of magnitude. Infrared output near 4.5-μm wavelength is associated with the large visible output, and pump power is strongly absorbed. We call this new phenomenon a photon avalanche. Critical pump power density is in the 1–15 W/cm2 range. At higher pump rates, a population inversion and lasing action take place between the lowest infrared levels of the Pr ion. Experimental results are presented and compared to predictions of a photon avalanche model based on resonant energy transfer.
Semiconductor quantum wells exhibit numerous nonlinear optical effects that are potentially useful in electro-optical or all-optical devices. In general, the underlying physical mechanisms are complex many-particle processes and can be viewed as interesting research subjects in their own right. One example of such a device is the all-optical polarization switch that has been demonstrated [1]. In that device, conventional (i.e. non-strained) GaAs quantum wells are used in conjunction with two polarizers to switch the throughput of a weak probe pulse with a strong pump pulse. The switching is due to an effective polarization rotation of the probe light by the pump light. The basic idea underlying this effective polarization rotation can be based on a simplified picture of two spin-degenerate heavy-hole exciton transitions. A linearly polarized probe pulse, which consists of right ("+") and left ("-") circularly polarized components, would not undergo polarization rotation, because it couples to both transitions in the same way. If, however, a circularly polarized pump beam modifies, for example, the transition frequency of the "+" transition, the absorption of the "+" component of the probe light differs from that of the "-" component. This leads to an effective polarization rotation.