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physica status solidi (b)

Doppler-Shifted Self-Reflection from a Semiconductor

A. Sch�lzgen, Nasser N. Peyghambarian, Steve Hughes

Published Mar 1, 1998• 30 citations
Publisher

Abstract

We report the experimental observation of a self-reflected wave inside a dense saturable absorber. A femtosecond pulse saturates the absorption and causes a density front to penetrate into the semiconductor. The dielectric constant change across the boundary between areas of low and high densities results in internal reflection. Due to the front propagation the self-reflected light is shifted by the Doppler effect. The Doppler shift makes it possible to distinguish between surface reflection and self-reflection and is used to experimentally verify the dynamic nonlinear skin effect. The measurements are in agreement with our theory which is within the framework of the reduced semiconductor Maxwell-Bloch equations.

DOI
10.1002/(sici)1521-3951(199803)206:1<125::aid-pssb125>3.0.co;2-8

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We report the experimental observation of a self-reflected wave inside a dense saturable absorber. A femtosecond pulse saturates the absorption and causes a density front to penetrate into the semiconductor. The dielectric constant change across the boundary between areas of low and high densities results in internal reflection. Due to the front propagation the self-reflected light is shifted by the Doppler effect. The Doppler shift makes it possible to distinguish between surface reflection and self-reflection and is used to experimentally verify the dynamic nonlinear skin effect. The measurements are in agreement with our theory which is within the framework of the reduced semiconductor Maxwell-Bloch equations.
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The propagation of laser light a few wavelengths inside a saturable absorber is theoretically studied. Computed steady-state solutions of the Maxwell–Bloch equations that describe the unidimensional propagation of a plane monochromatic wave, without introducing the slowly varying envelope approximation, show how saturation effects can influence this propagation. This can even lead to the appearance of a self-reflected wave inside the absorber because of the refractive-index changes that are induced by nonlinear coupling. One finds a close relation between the failure of the slowly varying envelope approximation and the presence of the self-reflected wave.
Intense light incident on a dense-gas--dielectric interface, from the dielectric side, is reflected because of the combined effect of the discontinuities in the index of refraction at the interface and at the transition region in the gas where the degree of atomic saturation changes abruptly. This latter discontinuity gives rise to a self-reflected wave. At low intensities this self-reflected wave is weak, the problem is linear, and the net reflected wave intensity taken as a function of frequency has a simple shape that should allow measurement of the hitherto undetected self-induced frequency shift in a collision-broadened gas at an absorption resonance. Calculations show that in the weak intensity regime, r'', the imaginary part of the reflection coefficient, is quasi-Lorentzian and shifted by an amount comparable to its width. At high light intensity r'' broadens, shifts, and distorts. The distortion, which nonuniformly modulates the Lorentzian shape, comes from an interference of the forward and self-reflected waves. In the wings of the resonance line the self-reflected wave can be neglected, and the shape of r'' although not distorted is shifted from where it would be if there were no local field correction.
Propagation of laser light through a saturable absorber is theoretically studied. Computed steady state solutions of the Maxwell equations describing the unidimensional propagation of a plane monochromatic wave without introducing the slowly-varying envelope approximation are presented showing how saturation effects can influence the absorption of the field. At a certain range of refractive index and extintion coefficients, computed solutions display a very susprising behaviour, and a self-reflected wave appears inside the absorber. This can be useful for a new kind of biestable device, similar to a standard bistable cavity but with the back mirror self-induced by the light.