Ultrafast gain dynamics in InAs/InGaAs quantum dot amplifiers

The ultrafast dynamics of gain and refractive index in an electrically pumped InAs-InGaAs quantum-dot (QD) optical amplifier are measured at room temperature using differential transmission with femtosecond time resolution. Both absorption and gain regions are investigated. While the absorption bleaching recovery occurs on a picosecond time scale, the gain compression recovers with /spl sim/100-fs time constant, making devices based on such dots promising for high-speed optical communications

Spectral hole-burning and carrier-heating dynamics in InGaAs quantum-dot amplifiers

The ultrafast gain and index dynamics in a set of InAs-InGaAs-GaAs quantum-dot (QD) amplifiers are measured at room temperature with femtosecond resolution. The role of spectral hole-burning (SHB) and carrier heating (CH) in the recovery of gain compression is investigated in detail. An ultrafast recovery of the spectral hole within /spl sim/100 fs is measured, comparable to bulk and quantum-well amplifiers, which is contradicting a carrier relaxation bottleneck in electrically pumped QD devices. The CH dynamics in the QD is quantitatively compared with results on an InGaAsP bulk amplifier. Reduced CH for both gain and refractive index dynamics of the QD devices is found, which is a promising prerequisite for high-speed applications. This reduction is attributed to reduced free-carrier absorption-induced heating caused by the small carrier density necessary to provide amplification in these low-dimensional systems

Time-resolved four-wave mixing in InAs/InGaAs quantum-dot amplifiers under electrical injection

Time-resolved four-wave mixing in an InAs/InGaAs/GaAs electrically pumped quantum-dot amplifier is measured at room temperature for different applied bias currents going from optical absorption to gain of the device. The four-wave mixing signal from 140 fs pulses shows a transition from a delayed photon-echo response in the absorption regime to a prompt free polarization decay in the gain regime. This corresponds to a pronounced reduction of the dephasing time from 250 fs at zero bias to less than 50 fs at the maximum applied current. The four-wave mixing response at transparency of the device shows a composite structure with both photon echo and free-polarization decay. This is a signature of the digital occupation number in quantum dots, resulting at transparency in a signal from dots occupied with either zero or two excitons corresponding to absorption or gain of the dot ground state

Room-temperature dephasing in InAs/GaAs quantum dots

Summary form only given. Semiconductor quantum dots (QDs) are receiving increasing attention for fundamental studies on zero-dimensional confinement and for device applications. Quantum-dot lasers are expected to show superior performances, like high material gain, low and temperature-independent threshold current and chirp-free operation, due to the delta-like density of states (DOS). We have measured the dephasing time at room temperature of InAs QDs embedded in a waveguide to estimate the lower limit for the energy-broadening of the DOS given by the homogeneous linewidth. The sample consists of 3 stacked layers of InAs-InGaAs-GaAs quantum dots

Pressure dependence of photoluminescence spectra of self-assembled InAs/GaAs quantum dots

Photoluminescence (PL) measurements have been performed in InAs/GaAs self-assembled quantum dots (QDs) under high excitation conditions at low temperatures and under high hydrostatic pressures up to 10 GPa. Mechanically polished samples for high pressure experiments exhibited PL emission from the QD ground state but not from the excited states. Instead, a new broad band is observed in the energy range of the first excited state, which is tentatively attributed to emission from smaller dots formed during the mechanical thinning of the sample. With increasing pressure we found a similar blue shift for the PL maxima of the QD ground state (65 meV/GPa) and of the new broad band (69 meV/ GPa). These pressure coefficients are 20% and 40% lower than those reported for dots of less than half the height as in our case and for the wetting layer, respectively. Our results point to a systematic reduction of the pressure coefficient of the InAs QDs with the increase of the dot height

Dephasing in InAs/GaAs quantum dots

The room-temperature dephasing in InAs/GaAs self-assembled quantum dots is measured using two independent methods: spectal-hole burning and four-wave mixing. Dephasing times weakly dependent on the excitation density are found, with a low density value of 290±80 fs from spectal-hole burning and of 260±20 fs from four-wave mixing

Coherent versus incoherent dynamics in InAs quantum-dot active wave guides

Coherent dynamics measured by time-resolvedfour-wave mixing is compared to incoherent population dynamicsmeasured by differential transmission spectroscopy on the ground-state transition at room temperature of two types of InAs-based quantum dots with different confinement energies. The measurements are performed with heterodyne detection on quantum-dot active wave guides to enhance the light–matter interaction length. An elastic nature of the measured dephasing is revealed which is independent of the dot energy level scheme

Vertical-external-cavity surface-emitting lasers and quantum dot lasers

The use of cavity to manipulate photon emission of quantum dots (QDs) has been opening unprecedented opportunities for realizing quantum functional nanophotonic devices and also quantum information devices. In particular, in the field of semiconductor lasers, QDs were introduced as a superior alternative to quantum wells to suppress the temperature dependence of the threshold current in vertical-external-cavity surface-emitting lasers (VECSELs). In this work, a review of properties and development of semiconductor VECSEL devices and QD laser devices is given. Based on the features of VECSEL devices, the main emphasis is put on the recent development of technological approach on semiconductor QD VECSELs. Then, from the viewpoint of both single QD nanolaser and cavity quantum electrodynamics (QED), a single-QD-cavity system resulting from the strong coupling of QD cavity is presented. A difference of this review from the other existing works on semiconductor VECSEL devices is that we will cover both the fundamental aspects and technological approaches of QD VECSEL devices. And lastly, the presented review here has provided a deep insight into useful guideline for the development of QD VECSEL technology and future quantum functional nanophotonic devices and monolithic photonic integrated circuits (MPhICs).Comment: 21 pages, 4 figures. arXiv admin note: text overlap with arXiv:0904.369