Abstract

When electrons and holes in direct-gap semiconductors are optically excited, selection rules restrict the number of optically coupled states to a relatively small k-space domain. As a result, the dynamics of absorption saturation is directly governed by the carrier scattering rates out of and back to these optically coupled states. With ultra-short pulses, the carrier generation rate can be larger than the scattering rates that lead to the internal thermalization of the electron-hole plasma.

© 1986 Optical Society of America