Abstract

Either real or virtual excitation of carriers in a semiconductor gives rise to optically induced absorption and index changes that are particularly large near the band edge. This paper will review the present status of these nonlinearities, which were first investigated for their potential use in nonlinear Fabry-Perot′s. Experimental devices reported to date, however, have relatively high switching thresholds and low contrast ratios.

© 1991 Optical Society of America