Ultrafast defect dynamics: A new approach to all optical broadband switching employing amorphous selenium thin films

Optical switches offer higher switching speeds than electronics, however, in most cases utilizing the interband transitions of the active medium for switching. As a result, the signal suffers heavy losses. In this article, we demonstrate a simple and yet efficient ultrafast broadband all-optical swi...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:AIP advances 2015-07, Vol.5 (7), p.077164-077164-6
Main Authors: Sharma, Rituraj, Prasai, Kiran, Drabold, D. A., Adarsh, K. V.
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
ABSORPTION
COMPUTERIZED SIMULATION
ELECTRON-PHONON COUPLING
ELECTRONIC STRUCTURE
ENERGY GAP
ENERGY LEVELS
ENERGY-LEVEL TRANSITIONS
MATERIALS SCIENCE
SELENIUM
THIN FILMS
TRANSIENTS
VELOCITY
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Summary:Optical switches offer higher switching speeds than electronics, however, in most cases utilizing the interband transitions of the active medium for switching. As a result, the signal suffers heavy losses. In this article, we demonstrate a simple and yet efficient ultrafast broadband all-optical switching on ps timescale in the sub-bandgap region of the a-Se thin film, where the intrinsic absorption is very weak. The optical switching is attributed to short-lived transient defects that form localized states in the bandgap and possess a large electron-phonon coupling. We model these processes through first principles simulation that are in agreement with the experiments.
ISSN:2158-3226
2158-3226
DOI:10.1063/1.4927543