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

The mechanism investigation of ultrafast all-optical switch based on electron spin polarization relaxation at 1.55μm

Tao Wang, An Li

Published Nov 24, 2005• 0 citations
Publisher

Abstract

Exciton saturation and optical nonlinearities caused by phase-space filling(PSF) in InGaAs(P) MQWs are investigated. In-well carrier population under pump beam is calculated as a function of time. Changes in absorption of the two circularly polarized component of the linear polarized test beam resulting from PSF are calculated by the semiconductor nonlinear absorption formula, respectively. The refractive indices of the two circularly polarized component are obtained from the K-K relations. Transient rotation angle of the major axis of the probe polarization is then deduced.

DOI
10.1117/12.633567

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Exciton saturation and optical nonlinearities caused by phase-space filling(PSF) in InGaAs(P) MQWs are investigated. In-well carrier population under pump beam is calculated as a function of time. Changes in absorption of the two circularly polarized component of the linear polarized test beam resulting from PSF are calculated by the semiconductor nonlinear absorption formula, respectively. The refractive indices of the two circularly polarized component are obtained from the K-K relations. Transient rotation angle of the major axis of the probe polarization is then deduced.
Exciton saturation and optical nonlinearities in multiple quantum wells due to many body interactions consisting of phase-space filling and Coulomb screening are investigated. We have made a theoretical model to compare the different effects induced by the two many-body interactions. We focus our calculations on the shift of the exciton absorption resonance at highly excited carrier densities in MQW which can be obtained through femtosecond pump-probe technique. We find that the blue shift of the exciton absorption resonance wavelength caused by the phase-space filling effects is about equivalent to the red shift of Coulomb screening effects in same circular polarization, while in contrary the red shift is much lager than the blue shift in opposite circular polarization. This phenomenon happens within optical switching timescale.
Within the framework of light-semiconductor interaction and the Lutting-Kohn model for the semiconductor band structure, we theoretically studied the mechanism of the polarization switch with coherent transient features. The result shows, in the coherent limitation, when the pump pulse Ep and signal pulse Es are orthogonal polarized, the third order polarization P(3), with first order of Es and second order of |Ep|, approach to zero, due to the destructive quantum interference, which results in an ultrafast pump-signal relative polarization dependent P(3), therewith a polarization switch. The study also shows that, when the light interacts with semiconductors coherently, the polarization state of the light is transferred to the relative phase of the electron spin, rather than the electron spin itself. The population of the polarization eigenstate excited by the pump pulse, do not origin from the Coulomb force of electrons, and should not thought phenomenologically as the exciton characterized by light polarization. This population will dephase to real carriers population, i.e. electron with exact spin |↑> or |↓>, by losing phase coefficients of the polarization eigenstates, in an ultrashort quantum dephase time.
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.
Summary from only given. Recently we have demonstrated an optically-addressed coherent polarization switch that is based on the near-resonant excitation of a spin-polarized population of virtual excitons in MQWs. By taking advantage of the nonlinearities associated with a virtual carrier population, this near resonant device exhibits a pulse-width-limited response; by operating near resonance it is capable of producing relatively large contrast ratios in thin samples; and finally, by generating a spin-polarized carrier population, the device produces a rotation of the signal polarization in unstrained MQWs. Here, we experimentally analyze the switching mechanisms by systematically performing spectrally and temporally resolved differential transmission measurements and by fully determining the polarization state of the transmitted signal as a function of time delay.