Carrier Cooling Accelerated by Photon Confinement in Nonlinear Photonic Band Structure

Abstract

Carrier dynamics in absorption saturation in an InP/InGaAs nonlinear photonic band structure is investigated by femtosecond reflectance measurements. Carrier cooling which causes absorption saturation recovery is accelerated by the enhancement of carrier–carrier scattering. Theoretical analysis of the optical field distribution suggests that the confinement of a high density of photons near the surface of the nonlinear photonic band structure induces the enhancement of carrier–carrier scattering. The accelerated carrier relaxation with enhanced absorption saturation leads to an increase in the figure of merit in the third-order optical nonlinearities.