A simplified analysis of the optical bistability of multiple quantum well etalons

Author

Yokoyama, H.

Author_Institution

MIT, Cambridge, MA, USA

Volume

25

Issue

6

fYear

1989

fDate

6/1/1989 12:00:00 AM

Firstpage

1190

Lastpage

1195

Abstract

An analysis of static room-temperature-operation characteristics of a reflection-mode semiconductor multiple-quantum well etalon by a simplified two-level system formula of optical nonlinear properties and a computer simulation is presented. In the calculation for a GaAs/AlGaAs multiple-quantum-well etalon using the parameters reported in experimental measurement, it is shown that the very large excitonic optical nonlinearity is not effectively utilized for the optical bistable operation. This occurs because the effective positive-feedback mechanism which increases the etalon internal light intensity is suppressed when a hardly saturable background interband absorption tail is larger than a few thousand cm^-1 at a wavelength where the large excitonic dispersive nonlinearity is observed

Keywords

III-V semiconductors; aluminium compounds; gallium arsenide; light interferometers; optical bistability; semiconductor quantum wells; GaAs-AlGaAs; computer simulation; excitonic dispersive nonlinearity; interband absorption tail; internal light intensity; multiple quantum well etalons; optical bistability; optical nonlinear properties; positive-feedback mechanism; static room-temperature-operation characteristics; two-level system formula; Absorption; Computer simulation; Dispersion; Excitons; Gallium arsenide; Nonlinear optics; Optical bistability; Optical feedback; Optical films; Optical refraction; Optical saturation; Optical sensors; Quantum well devices; Tail;

fLanguage

English

Journal_Title

Quantum Electronics, IEEE Journal of

Publisher

ieee

ISSN

0018-9197

Type

jour

DOI

10.1109/3.29246

Filename

29246