Time-resolved four-wave mixing signal in thick bulk GaAs

Abstract

We experimentally demonstrate that the temporal shape of the four-wave mixing (FWM) signal in thick semiconductors is significantly influenced by the absorption of the generated FWM signal during its propagation through the sample as well as the pulse broadening effect, by performing the time-integrated (TI) and time-resolved (TR) FWM experiments, and by measuring the pulse shape of the transmitted probe beam in the presence of a pump beam for a 500- and a 100-μm-thick undoped GaAs. We find that the temporal shape of the TR-FWM signal in the vicinity of the exciton resonance depends on the sample thickness and time delay between two incident pulses. As the excitation laser is tuned far below the exciton resonance, however, the propagation effect of the FWM signal itself through the sample becomes dramatically weaker and the temporal shape of the FWM signal resembles the distorted probe pulse shape. Furthermore, the peak intensities of the TI- FWM signals near the exciton resonance are smaller in the thicker sample than in the thinner sample, whereas in the thick sample are larger well below the exciton resonance, due to the absorption of the FWM signal.