Room temperature carrier lifetimes and optical nonlinearities of GaInAs / AlInAs and GaAlInAs / AlInAs MQW devices at 1.3 micrometers

The room temperature nonlinear absorption spectra of a GaInAs/AlInAs and a GaAlInAs/AlInAs multiple quantum well (MQW) were measured near 1.3 microns using a pump probe technique. Saturation carrier densities at the heavy-hole exciton peak were determined to be 1.2 x 10 to the 18th power and 1.0 x 10 to the 18th power/cc with carrier lifetimes of approx. 2.3 ns and approx. 750 ps for the two samples, respectively. Fabry-Perot etalons with integrated mirrors grown by molecular beam epitaxy (MBE) with GaInAs/AlInAs MQWs as spacer layers were also fabricated as optical switching devices. A 175 ps recovery time was measured for the etalon at room temperature.