Optical tuning of a tellurium cavity: optical modulation and bistability in the infrared region at room temperature

A new optical-optical modulator for the infrared region (4m < < 11m) is described. It is based on the tuning of the transmission of a plane parallel tellurium slab by free carriers created by multiphoton absorption of 10.6m and 5.3m radiation at room temperature. The operation of this device is described by a simple theory using the plane-wave approximation and the Drude-Zehner model. The assumptions of this theory were fulfilled by the experimental conditions, permitting a quantitative analysis of the registered modulations. Under certain working conditions pulse shortening (170 ns pulses of=5.3m were shortened by up to 20 ns) and fast switch-on of the device (switch-on time 2 ns) were observed. Moreover, the modulator exhibits limiter action and optical bistability which, for the first time, is observed in an intrinsic semiconductor device at room temperature.The substance of this paper was presented at the Conference on Ultrafast Phenomena in Spectroscopy at Reinhardsbrunn (GDR), in November 1980, and a preliminary account published in theProceedings of the meeting.