Paola Borri

Spectral hole-burning and carrier-heating dynamics in InGaAs quantum-dot amplifiers

The ultrafast gain and index dynamics in a set of InAs-InGaAs-GaAs quantum-dot (QD) amplifiers are measured at room temperature with femtosecond resolution. The role of spectral hole-burning (SHB) and carrier heating (CH) in the recovery of gain compression is investigated in detail. An ultrafast recovery of the spectral hole within /spl sim/100 fs is measured, comparable to bulk and quantum-well amplifiers, which is contradicting a carrier relaxation bottleneck in electrically pumped QD devices. The CH dynamics in the QD is quantitatively compared with results on an InGaAsP bulk amplifier. Reduced CH for both gain and refractive index dynamics of the QD devices is found, which is a promising prerequisite for high-speed applications. This reduction is attributed to reduced free-carrier absorption-induced heating caused by the small carrier density necessary to provide amplification in these low-dimensional systems.

Ultrafast gain dynamics in InAs-InGaAs quantum-dot amplifiers

The ultrafast dynamics of gain and refractive index in an electrically pumped InAs-InGaAs quantum-dot (QD) optical amplifier are measured at room temperature using differential transmission with femtosecond time resolution. Both absorption and gain regions are investigated. While the absorption bleaching recovery occurs on a picosecond time scale, the gain compression recovers with /spl sim/100-fs time constant, making devices based on such dots promising for high-speed optical communications.

Exciton relaxation and dephasing in quantum-dot amplifiers from room to cryogenic temperature

We present an extensive experimental study of the exciton relaxation and dephasing in InGaAs quantum dots (QDs) in the temperature range from 10 K to 295 K. The QDs are embedded in the active region of an electrically pumped semiconductor optical amplifier. Ultrafast four-wave mixing and differential transmission spectroscopy on the dot ground-state transition are performed with a sensitive heterodyne detection technique. The importance of the population relaxation dynamics to the dephasing is determined as a function of injection current and temperature. Above 150 K dephasing processes much faster than the population relaxation are present, due to both carrier-phonon scattering and Coulomb interaction with the injected carriers. Only at low temperatures (<30 K) does population relaxation of multiexcitons in the gain regime fully determine the dephasing.

Coherent anti-Stokes Raman microspectroscopy using spectral focusing with glass dispersion

We demonstrate experimentally that coherent anti-Stokes Raman microspectroscopy with high spectral resolution is achieved using femtosecond laser pulses chirped up to a few picoseconds by glass elements of known group-velocity dispersion without significant intensity losses. By simply choosing the length of the glass, the chirp of Stokes and pump pulses is tailored to obtain a spectral resolution given by the Fourier limit of the chirped pulse duration. We show that for chirped pulse durations shorter than or comparable to the Raman coherence time, maximum signal occurs for a pump arriving after the Stokes pulse, a time-ordering effect confirmed by numerical simulations.

Linewidth enhancement factor in InGaAs quantum dot amplifiers

We report systematic measurements of the linewidth enhancement factor (LEF) in an electrically pumped InGaAs quantum-dot (QD) amplifier in the temperature range from 50 K to room temperature. At injection currents below transparency, the value of the linewidth enhancement factor of the ground-state interband (excitonic) transition is between 0.4 and 1, and increases with increasing carrier density. Additionally, we investigate the spectral dependence of the LEF by tuning the wavelength of our optical probe from below resonance with the ground state of the QDs up to resonance with the first optically active excited-state transition. We find a decrease of the LEF with increasing photon energy at all investigated temperatures.

Excited-state gain dynamics in InGaAs quantum-dot amplifiers

The ultrafast gain recovery dynamics of the first excited state (ES) is studied in an electrically pumped InGaAs quantum-dot amplifier at room temperature and compared with the ground-state (GS) gain dynamics. Pump-probe differential transmission experiments are performed in heterodyne detection and the gain dynamics are investigated as a function of injection current. An ultrafast (<200 fs) initial gain recovery of both GS and ES transition is found, promising for optical signal processing at high bit rates. The obtained results suggest the occurrence of a fast recovery of the state occupation mediated by carrier-carrier scattering as long as a reservoir of carriers in the ESs and wetting layer is present.

Ultrafast carrier dynamics in InGaAs quantum dot materials and devices

In this paper we review the subject of dephasing processes and population dynamics in self-assembled InGaAs/GaAs quantum dot materials and devices. Our aim is to give a comprehensive overview of our experimental results and an up-to-date discussion in comparison with present theories and other experiments reported in the literature. Additionally, we present new experimental results on InGaAs quantum dots emitting near 1.3 µm wavelength. Concerning the understanding of the fundamental physical processes, we will address the issues of carrier–phonon interaction and carrier–carrier Coulomb interaction and compare dephasing times with population dynamics to highlight the role of pure dephasing processes. Furthermore, we will point out the impact of the measured dynamics specifically at room temperature and under electrical injection in active waveguide structures, for the application of InGaAs/GaAs quantum dots in optoelectronic devices.

Time-resolved optical characterization of InAs/InGaAs quantum dots emitting at 1.3 μm

We present the time-resolved optical characterization of InAs/InGaAs self-assembledquantum dots emitting at 1.3 μm at room temperature. The photoluminescence decay time varies from 1.2 (5 K) to 1.8 ns (293 K). Evidence of thermalization among dots is seen in both continuous-wave and time-resolved spectra around 150 K. A short rise time of 10±2 ps is measured, indicating a fast capture and relaxation of carriers inside the dots.

Nonlinear vibrational microscopy applied to lipid biology.

Optical microscopy is an indispensable tool that is driving progress in cell biology. It still is the only practical means of obtaining spatial and temporal resolution within living cells and tissues. Most prominently, fluorescence microscopy based on dye-labeling or protein fusions with fluorescent tags is a highly sensitive and specific method of visualizing biomolecules within sub-cellular structures. It is however severely limited by labeling artifacts, photo-bleaching and cytotoxicity of the labels. Coherent Raman Scattering (CRS) has emerged in the last decade as a new multiphoton microscopy technique suited for imaging unlabeled living cells in real time with high three-dimensional spatial resolution and chemical specificity. This technique has proven to be particularly successful in imaging unstained lipids from artificial membrane model systems, to living cells and tissues to whole organisms. In this article, we will review the experimental implementations of CRS microscopy and their application to imaging lipids. We will cover the theoretical background of linear and non-linear vibrational micro-spectroscopy necessary for the understanding of CRS microscopy. The different experimental implementations of CRS will be compared in terms of sensitivity limits and excitation and detection methods. Finally, we will provide an overview of the applications of CRS microscopy to lipid biology.

Differential coherent anti-Stokes Raman scattering microscopy with linearly chirped femtosecond laser pulses

We demonstrate a technique for differential coherent anti-Stokes Raman scattering (CARS) microscopy employing linearly chirped femtosecond laser pulses. By replicating the exciting pump-Stokes pulse pairs to create a pulse train at twice the laser repetition rate, and controlling the instantaneous frequency difference of each pair by glass dispersion, we can adjust the Raman frequency probed by each pair in an intrinsically stable and cost-effective way. The resulting CARS intensities are detected by a single photomultiplier as sum and difference using phase-sensitive frequency filtering. We demonstrate imaging of polymer beads and living cells with suppressed nonresonant CARS background and improved chemical sensitivity.