Electrooptic effects in GaAs-AlGaAs narrow coupled quantum wells

• Published in: IEEE journal of quantum electronics Vol. 37; no. 7; pp. 897 - 904
• Main Authors: Earnshaw, M.P., Allsopp, D.W.E.
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: New York, NY IEEE 01-07-2001; Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers; The Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers, Inc. (IEEE)
• Subjects: Absorption; Condensed matter: electronic structure, electrical, magnetic, and optical properties; Doppler effect; Electrooptic effects; Electrooptical effects; Electrooptics; Exact sciences and technology; Excitation; Excitons; Iii-v semiconductors; Joining; Optical modulation; Optical properties and condensed-matter spectroscopy and other interactions of matter with particles and radiation; Optical properties of bulk materials and thin films; Optical properties of specific thin films; Optical refraction; Optical variables control; Origins; Phase modulation; Physics; Polarization; Quantum electronics; Quantum wells; Red shift; Switches; Tellurium; Aluminium arsenides; Coulomb field; Gallium arsenides; Inorganic compounds; Ternary compounds; Electro-optical effects; Quantum wells; Binary compounds; Strong coupling; Bound exciton; Experimental study
• ISSN: 0018-9197; 1558-1713
• DOI: 10.1109/3.929589

The linear and quadratic electrooptic coefficients in narrow single and strongly coupled GaAs-Al/sub x/Ga/sub 1-x/As quantum wells have been measured. The quadratic electrooptic effect is enhanced over that of conventional square quantum wells for both TE and TM polarization in all the structures considered, by up to six times in the case of 2-nm-wide GaAs-Al/sub 0.2/Ga/sub 0.8/As strongly coupled quantum wells. The origin of the enhanced quadratic electrooptic effect was found to correlate with a larger red shift in the absorption edge exciton and strong Coulombic coupling of the bound exciton states with the quasi-continua.