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Proceedings of SPIE, the International Society for Optical Engineering/Proceedings of SPIE

Photo-Electronic Optical Nonlinearities In Three- And Quasi Two-Dimensional Semiconductors

Claus F. Klingshirn, C. Weber, H.‐E. Swoboda, R. Renner, F. A. Majumder, M. Kunz, M. Rinker, Holger Schwab, M. Wegener, D. S. Chemla, David A. B. Miller, J. E. Cunningham, M. Sence, Rameshwar N. Bhargava

Published Mar 8, 1989• 0 citations
Publisher

Abstract

We report here on photo-electronic nonlinearities in direct gap seminconductors, especially those connected with the transition from a low-density gas of excitons to an electron-hole plasma. We consider both three-dimensional and quasi two-dimensional semiconductors and compare both systms. Finally we show that these photo-electronic optical non-linearities can be used to obtain various types of optical bistability.

DOI
10.1117/12.949952

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We report here on photo-electronic nonlinearities in direct gap seminconductors, especially those connected with the transition from a low-density gas of excitons to an electron-hole plasma. We consider both three-dimensional and quasi two-dimensional semiconductors and compare both systms. Finally we show that these photo-electronic optical non-linearities can be used to obtain various types of optical bistability.
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.
A general discussion of the linear-optical properties of free and bound excitons in direct-gap semiconductors at low temperature is presented. This discussion then specializes to CdS. The nonlinear-optical response of CdS is introduced by first discussing the saturation behavior of bound excitons. A new type of cavityless optical bistability based on induced absorption near the free and bound excitons is described. Finally, fast all-optical switching (<1 nsec) at very low switching energies (<8 pJ) is demonstrated, using the giant nonlinearity associated with bound excitons.
The main mechanisms for the observed large optical nonlinearities in semiconductors are briefly discussed and illustrated for the example of the exciton ionization by plasma screening. These nonlinearities cause various types of optical bistability, either of intrinsic nature or evoked by an additional resonator feedback. Under certain operation conditions also higher instabilities such as oscillations and chaos can be obtained. As an example, the self-pulsing of an induced absorber in a ring cavity is treated. The resulting locked oscillations are shown to follow a Farey-tree scenarium.
We review the nonlinear-optical effects observed at room temperature in semiconductor quantum-well structures photoexcited near the band gap. A comprehensive discussion of optical transitions in these microstructures is given, including excitonic effects and the specific features of room-temperature exciton resonances. Experimental investigations using continuous-wave, picosecond-, and femtosecond-laser sources are presented. They show extremely efficient nonlinear processes. In the case of excitations that are long compared with the exciton-ionization time, the induced changes in absorption and refraction do not depend on the wavelength or on the duration of excitation. These changes depend only on the density of absorbed photons and are interpreted in terms of electron–hole plasma screening and band filling. In contrast, for ultrashort excitation, nonlinear processes depend critically on the excitation wavelength. The selective generation of excitons is found to produce effects larger than a plasma of the same density. This unexpected result is shown to arise from the low temperature of the exciton gas before it interacts with the lattice and from the decrease of screening that is the reduced dimensionality of quantum-well structures.
The optical spectra of laser-excited semiconductors change with varying laser intensity. Close to exciton or biexciton resonances these optical nonlinearities are, e.g., large enough to obtain optical bistability. The cause for these large nonlinearities are many-body effects in the system of the electron-hole pair excitation. The use of nonequilibrium Green’s functions, or if a quasi-equilibrium exists of thermal Green’s functions, makes it possible to take radiative and Coulomb interactions consistently into account.