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Journal of the Optical Society of America B

Influence of surface recombination on optically bistable semiconductor devices

D. Frank, B. S. Wherrett

Published Jan 1, 1987• 14 citations
Publisher

Abstract

The influence of carrier surface recombination on optical bistability of an electronic origin is predicted to lead to an optimum cavity length for low-power operation. The power (irradiance) levels for bistable switching are shown to be severely higher in the presence of strong surface effects. An optimization procedure for low-irradiance switching is described.

DOI
10.1364/josab.4.000025

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The influence of carrier surface recombination on optical bistability of an electronic origin is predicted to lead to an optimum cavity length for low-power operation. The power (irradiance) levels for bistable switching are shown to be severely higher in the presence of strong surface effects. An optimization procedure for low-irradiance switching is described.
Optically bistable devices may be physically pixelated, and this may reduce cross talk or power requirements. When the bistability is of electronic origin, the rate of recombination of carriers at the surface is of great importance. We show how the surface recombination affects the speed of the element, first for a one-dimensional model and then for a cylindrical rod pixel with recombination at the curved surface. In some cases pixelated and unpixelated elements operate at the same speed, which indicates that the surface recombination in the former is equivalent to the diffusive loss from the latter.
Abstract The influence of sample thickness and carrier surface recombination on the characteristics of resonatorless dissipative optical bistability (RDOB) is investigated. The RDOB under consideration is caused by the excitation density nonlinearities of band‐edge absorption of laser radiation in semiconductors. The diversity of multivalued spatial carrier distributions in the sample of thickness d with arbitrary velocity of surface recombination S are considered. It is established that strong recombination can considerably affect the structure and properties of possible carrier distributions and hysteresis of the transmission.
Refractive changes in semiconductors used in optical bistability are induced as a result of excitations generated by intense light levels. To date such excitations have been either electronic (carriers excited to higher energy states) as in InSb or thermal as in ZnSe. Usually such refractive index changes are small and it is necessary to introduce some form of optical feedback in order to obtain a useful change in the output signal. Various configurations which provide optical feedback are examined and the optimisation for low switching power levels is addressed.
We present an analysis of the effect of surface recombination on the behaviour of optically bistable and transphasor devices. We derive analytic expressions for the longitudinal carrier profiles and the input/output intensity characteristics for a plane wave input. We also examine the frequency response of such devices and find qualitative agreement with experimental results. Finally, we present preliminary calculations modelling bistable devices including both longitudinal and transverse carrier diffusion, and surface recombination.
A time-dependent theory of optical bistability is developed and applied to laser amplifiers and passive semiconductor etalons. Results of the theory show an output intensity spike in switch-up which occurs after a time delay determined largely by the carrier recombination time, and before which the transition is unstable. Although for passive etalons the spike is rather broad (of order 1 ns for parameters appropriate to GaAs at 0.85 μm or InGaAsP at 1.55 μm) and of low amplitude, for amplifiers it is roughly an order of magnitude narrower and higher in amplitude. As a consequence, it is predicted that clock speeds for semiconductor bistable switching elements will be limited to rates commensurate with the carrier recombination time, not only for switch-down operations (as already well known) but also for switch-up operations.