R. Paiella et al., 4-WAVE-MIXING MEDIATED BY THE CAPTURE OF ELECTRONS AND HOLES IN SEMICONDUCTOR QUANTUM-WELL LASER-AMPLIFIERS, Applied physics letters, 71(25), 1997, pp. 3601-3603
An experimental technique based on frequency-resolved four-wave mixing
is proposed for the investigation of phonon-assisted capture of elect
rons and holes in electrically pumped semiconductor quantum wells. We
show how this technique can be used to directly measure the intrinsic
capture lifetime, with no need for involved numerical fits. We also pr
esent experimental results from an application of the technique to a m
ultiquantum-well semiconductor optical amplifier. The possible impact
of phase matching on the results is discussed. (C) 1997 American Insti
tute of Physics. [S0003-6951(97)00351-3].