Carrier concentration dependence of optical Kerr nonlinearity in indium tin oxide films

H. I. Elim, W. Ji*, F. Zhu

*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journalJournal articlepeer-review

34 Citations (Scopus)

Abstract

Optical Kerr nonlinearity (n2) in n-type indium tin oxide (ITO) films coated on glass substrates has been measured using Z-scans with 200-fs laser pulses at wavelengths ranging from 720 to 780 nm. The magnitudes of the measured nonlinearity in the ITO films were found to be dependent on the carrier concentration with a maximum n2-value of 4.1×10-5 cm2/GW at 720-nm wavelength and an electron density of N d=5.8×1020 cm-3. The Kerr nonlinearity was also observed to be varied with the laser wavelength. By employing a femtosecond time-resolved optical Kerr effect (OKE) technique, the relaxation time of OKE in the ITO films is determined to be ∼ 1 ps. These findings suggest that the Kerr nonlinearity in ITO can be tailored by controlling the carrier concentration, which should be highly desirable in optoelectronic devices for ultrafast all-optical switching.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)439-442
Number of pages4
JournalApplied Physics B: Lasers and Optics
Volume82
Issue number3
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - Mar 2006

Scopus Subject Areas

  • Physics and Astronomy (miscellaneous)
  • General Physics and Astronomy

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