Novel nitride - based materials for nonlinear optical signal processing applications at 1.5 μm

We characterize the third order nonlinear optical response of the interband transition of bulk InN and the intraband transition of GaN/AIN quantum dots, both of them in the spectral region around 1.5 mufrac14m. The results show that these materials can be very suitable for optical signal processing applications in the spectral region of wavelength-division multiplexed (WDM) transmission. Considering the temporal behavior of the nonlinear response, InN seems particularly useful in all-optical control of light speed (slow-light generation), whereas GaN/AIN quantum dots are promising for switching and wavelength conversion applications.