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Journal of Physics D Applied Physics

Calculation of the time-resolved absorption and refraction spectra of direct-gap semiconductors

Jan P. Löwenau, R. Neumann

Published Apr 14, 1989• 0 citations
Publisher

Abstract

Dispersive optical bistability has been observed in various direct-gap semiconductors. This effect is due to the dependence of the refractive index on the intensity I. A unified microscopic theory of the observed optical bistability in direct-gap semiconductors, such as GaAs is developed by calculating the complex, non-linear dielectric function for arbitrary free-carrier concentrations. The calculation, which includes many-body effects, consists in a very accurate numerical solution of the Bethe-Salpeter equation for the polarisation function. The resulting time-resolved spectra are discussed and are compared with experimental results.

DOI
10.1088/0022-3727/22/4/004

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Dispersive optical bistability has been observed in various direct-gap semiconductors. This effect is due to the dependence of the refractive index on the intensity I. A unified microscopic theory of the observed optical bistability in direct-gap semiconductors, such as GaAs is developed by calculating the complex, non-linear dielectric function for arbitrary free-carrier concentrations. The calculation, which includes many-body effects, consists in a very accurate numerical solution of the Bethe-Salpeter equation for the polarisation function. The resulting time-resolved spectra are discussed and are compared with experimental results.
Nonlinear optical properties of laser-excited semiconductors are discussed, and the applications to optical bistability and optical logic are reviewed. The physical origin of the nonlinearities is analyzed in terms of the many-body interactions in the system of electron-hole pairs, causing effects such as plasma screening of the Coulomb interaction, band-gap renormalization, and band filling. Theoretical results for absorption and refractive-index spectra are compared to experimental data obtained for room-temperature GaAs and other semiconductors. The experimental and theoretical results for dispersive optical bistability in semiconductors are summarized, and recent experiments on optical logic gating and pattern recognition are discussed.
Optical bistability has been observed in a semiconductor for the first time. The bistable etalon consists of a GaAlAs-GaAs-GaAlAs molecular-beam-epitaxially-grown sandwich with 90% reflectivity coatings. The bistability is primarily dispersive with the nonlinear refractive index arising from light-induced changes in exciton absorption. Using light of frequency just below the exciton peak, we observed bistability from 5 to 120 °K with 40-ns turn-off and subnanosecond turn-on times with 1 mW/μm2 holding intensity.
Using a coherent radiation-semiconductor interaction model based upon the time dependent perturbation technique, the occurrence of optical nutation has been analytically investigated in direct-gap semiconductors such as GaAs, GaSb, InAs, and Hg1-xCdxTe, duly irradiated by near resonant laser beams. The present approach is much more simplified and straightforward than the conventional Maxwell-Bloch approach used so far for the study of coherent optical transient effects in molecular and atomic systems. The dispersion and absorption expressed in terms of the real and imaginary parts of the crystal optical susceptibility\chi_{r}and\chi_{i}exhibit temporally damped ringing behavior of Neumann and Bessel types, respectively. These processes have been identified as dispersive and absorptive optical nutation. The theory is developed for arbitrary laser intensity in presence of damping due to nonoptical processes. To understand the mechanisms of dispersive and absorptive optical nutation, we have restricted only to low-power resonant band-to-band transitions neglecting excitonic and damping effects. While studying analytically the transient behavior of\chi_{r}and\chi_{i}for a given pump field strength, it is noticed that the absorptive component exhibit remarkable qualitative agreement with the experimental observations of optical nutation in13CH3F.
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.
Detailed comparisons are made of the results of two approaches to the problem of non-linear refraction at frequencies just below the band edge of a semiconductor. The magnetic field case discussed is shown to give potentially larger non-linearities than the zero-field situation. The physical origin of the non-linear dispersion is taken to be direct saturation of T 2 broadened band states in the first model. In the second the refraction associated with a dynamic Burstein-Moss shift of the absorption edge is considered. Both models predict an extremely large non-linearity, of importance in the field of dispersive optical bistability. The results are also consistent with experimental observations of non-linear Faraday rotation and interband saturation in InSb.