SCALING OF STARK-SHIFTED PER-CARRIER NONLINEARITIES IN MULTIPLE-QUANTUM-WELL DEVICE STRUCTURES

We demonstrate simple rules for the scaling of per-carrier Stark-shift ed nonlinearities with well number, electric field, amplitude and widt h of the excitonic transition by measuring the per carrier nonlinear r esponse of a number of multiple-quantum-well structures as a function of temperature, bias and materials system. These measurements illustra te that the per-carrier nonlinearity can be improved by optimizing the in-well bias field and by increasing the number of wells per intrinsi c region; however, they also demonstrate that when the measured per-ca rrier nonlinearities are corrected for material quality and temperatur e (i.e., excitonic amplitude and linewidth) that the per-carrier respo nse does not depend appreciably on material system or on whether the f ields are externally-applied, built-in, or intrinsic.