Femtosecond response time in beryllium-doped low-temperature-grown GaAs/AlAs multiple quantum wells

Abstract

We have investigated optical nonlinearity in beryllium-doped low-temperature (LT) molecular-beam-epitaxy-grown GaAs/AlAs multiple quantum wells (MQWs). The response time of the nonlinearity is reduced by Be doping in the MQW. While the undoped LT MQW shows a 0.7–0.9 ps response, the response time of the Be-doped LT MQW is as short as 0.25 ps. The saturation density of the Be-doped MQW is almost the same as that of the undoped MQW, and is smaller than that of bulk GaAs. These results demonstrate that the Be-doped LT MQW exhibits a faster response than the undoped LT MQW, and a faster response as well as larger nonlinearity than LT bulk GaAs.