Below-band-gap third-order optical nonlinearity of nanometer-size semiconductor crystallites

D. Cotter; M. G. Burt; R. J. Manning

doi:10.1103/PhysRevLett.68.1200

Below-band-gap third-order optical nonlinearity of nanometer-size semiconductor crystallites

D. Cotter, M. G. Burt, and R. J. Manning

Phys. Rev. Lett. 68, 1200 – Published 24 February 1992

Abstract

We find evidence that quantum confinement of electrons in small semiconductor particles causes the nonlinear optical properties in the transparency region to differ markedly from those of bulk semiconductors. The optical Stark effect makes the dominant contribution to the third-order refractive nonlinearity.