Published November 1987 | Version v1
Journal article

Picosecond CO/sub 2/ laser-induced self-defocusing in InSb

  • 1. Dept. of Electrical and Computer Engineering, State Univ. of New York at Buffalo, Amherst, NY 14260

Description

Self-defocusing of 45 ps CO/sub 2/ laser pulses was observed in InSb at intensities as low as 1 MW/cm/sup 2/. This self-defocusing was caused by the two-photon absorption generated free carriers and the resulting self-phase modulation. In addition to demonstrating spatial beam modulation in this material at 10.6 μm, the present experiment also confirms directly that such a process occurs on a picosecond time scale. This information is important in order to increase the switching speed of infrared optical bistable devices to the picosecond regime. Furthermore, the present self-defocusing experiment also provided an accurate determination of the two-photon absorption coefficient in InSb. The value of 2.5 cm/MW obtained agrees exactly with a previous study. Other applications to continuum and ultrashort pulse generation are also discussed

Additional details

Publishing Information

Journal Title
IEEE J. Quantum Electron.
Journal Volume
QE-23
Journal Issue
11
Series
IEEE J. Quantum Electron.
Journal Page Range
1974-1980
ISSN
0018-9197
CODEN
IEJQA