Dimensionality of InGaAs nonlinear optical response

Abstract

In this thesis the ultrafast optical properties of a series of InGaAs samples ranging from the two to the three dimensional limit are discussed. An optical system producing 150 fs continuum centered at 1.5 microns was built. Using this system, ultrafast pump-probe and four wave mixing experiments were performed. Carrier thermalization measurements reveal that screening of the Coulomb interaction is relatively unaffected by confinement, while Pauli blocking nonlinearities at the band edge are approximately twice as strong in two dimensions as in three. Carrier cooling via phonon emission is influenced by confinement due both to the change in electron distribution function and the reduction in electron phonon coupling. Purely coherent band edge effects, as measured by the AC Stark effect and four wave mixing, are found to be dominated by the changes in excitonic structure which take place with confinement.