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Journal of Applied Physics

Linear electroabsorption in semi-insulating GaAs/AlGaAs asymmetric double quantum wells

Marı́a Aguilar, M. Carrascosa, Fernando Agulló-López, Fernando Agulló-Rueda, M. R. Melloch, David D. Nolte

Published Oct 1, 1999• 10 citations
Publisher

Abstract

Electroabsorption has been investigated in semi-insulating asymmetric GaAs/AlGaAs double quantum wells presenting high linear Stark responses, adequate for photorefractive applications. We have used the envelope function approximation to calculate the linear Stark shifts of the energy levels and select a suitable structure for the experimental study. The experimental data indicate that the response to the applied field critically depends on a complicated interplay of effects that compete or cooperate to suppress or enhance the electroabsorption. For positive field polarity, the competing contributions of the overlapping e1–hh1 and e1–hh2 transitions partially cancel the electroabsorption despite large linear Stark shifts. On the other hand, small negative fields induce large electroabsorption because the Stark shifts of the two transitions have opposite signs.

DOI
10.1063/1.371293

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Electroabsorption has been investigated in semi-insulating asymmetric GaAs/AlGaAs double quantum wells presenting high linear Stark responses, adequate for photorefractive applications. We have used the envelope function approximation to calculate the linear Stark shifts of the energy levels and select a suitable structure for the experimental study. The experimental data indicate that the response to the applied field critically depends on a complicated interplay of effects that compete or cooperate to suppress or enhance the electroabsorption. For positive field polarity, the competing contributions of the overlapping e1–hh1 and e1–hh2 transitions partially cancel the electroabsorption despite large linear Stark shifts. On the other hand, small negative fields induce large electroabsorption because the Stark shifts of the two transitions have opposite signs.
The photorefractive properties of semi-insulating AlGaAs–GaAs multiple quantum wells are described for the transverse Franz–Keldysh geometry with the electric field in the plane of the quantum wells. Combining the strong electroabsorption of quantum-confined excitons with the high resistivity of semi-insulating quantum wells yields large nonlinear optical sensitivities. The photorefractive quantum wells have effective nonlinear optical sensitivities of n2 ≈ 103 cm2/W and α2/α0 ≈ 104 cm2/W for applied fields of 10 kV/cm. Photorefractive gains approaching 1000 cm−1 have been observed in two-wave mixing under dc electric fields and stationary fringes. The transverse Franz–Keldysh geometry retains the general transport properties and behavior of conventional bulk photorefractive materials. The resonant excitation of free electrons and holes in the quantum wells leads to novel behavior associated with electron–hole competition. We demonstrate that under resonant excitation of electrons and holes the device resolution is fundamentally limited by diffusion lengths but is insensitive to long drift lengths.
Abstract Linear, nonlinear and total optical absorption coefficients and relative refractive index changes for both symmetric and asymmetric double V-shaped quantum well configurations formed within AlxGa1-xAs/GaAs heterostructure are theoretically investigated. Responses of these coefficients to well widths, barrier widths and concentration of aluminum within the barrier as well as applied external electromagnetic fields are the subject of this study. The electronic spectra of the structures are obtained as a solution of Schrödinger equation with relevant potential and external agents in the framework of effective mass and envelope wave function approximations. The optical properties are calculated via the analytical expressions obtained by iterative solutions within compact density matrix approach. Although increasing barrier width and aluminum concentration act similar significant red shifting on the referred coefficients for both symmetric and asymmetric double V-shaped wells, the varying well widths acts differently for each configuration. Widening both wells in symmetric case moves the resonance peaks to lower energies, while the rise on only one well carries the resonance peaks to higher energies for asymmetric case. Enhancing both the electric and magnetic fields shift the resonance peaks to the blue for symmetric and also asymmetric wells. High dependency of the optical properties to the structural parameters and external electromagnetic fields as well as asymmetry of the wells is presented here in detail.
We have observed two-wave mixing in semi-insulating AlGaAs/GaAs multiple quantum well structures at wavelengths near the exciton absorption. The photorefractive index changes are caused by the Franz–Keldysh effect on quantum-confined excitons. Photorefractive gains larger than 200 cm−1 are obtained for the first time at wavelengths near 836 nm using stationary fringes and dc applied fields up to 5 kV/cm. The direction of energy transfer between the two beams is determined by the direction of applied electric field.
In this article, we have investigated the optical properties of intersubband transitions in an asymmetric AlGaAs/GaAs coupled quantum wells system. We solved the Schrödinger equation numerically using homemade finite difference codes to determine the electronic structure. The susceptibilities were calculated in frame of density matrix equations. The effect of relative phase variation between applied fields, on the linear absorption coefficients, relative refractive index changes, and group velocity has been investigated. The results show that the linear optical properties are extremely phase-dependent. By adjusting the phase, it is possible to obtain absorption curves with dispersion-like profile and vice versa.
Linear, nonlinear and total optical absorption coefficients and relative refractive index changes for symmetric and asymmetric double V-shaped quantum well configurations formed within AlxGa1-xAs/GaAs heterostructure have been theoretically investigated. Responses of these coefficients to well widths, barrier widths and aluminium concentrations within the barrier as well as applied external electromagnetic fields were the subject of this study. The electronic spectra of the structures are obtained as a solution to the Schrödinger equation with relevant potential and external agents in the framework of effective mass and envelope wave function approximations. The optical properties are calculated by the analytical expressions obtained by iterative solutions within the compact density matrix approach. Although increasing barrier width and aluminium concentration act similarly significant red shifting on the referred coefficients for both symmetric and asymmetric double V-shaped wells, the varying well widths act differently for each configuration. Strengthening electric and magnetic fields shift the resonance peaks to blue for both symmetric and asymmetric wells. The results show that optical properties can be controlled by structural parameters, external probes and asymmetry of double V-shaped wells.