Direct measurement of free carrier nonlinearity in semiconductor-doped glass with picosecond pump-probe Z-scan experiment

We report the direct measurement of free carrier nonlinearity in a semiconductor-doped glass with picosecond pump-probe Z-scan experiment. A strong Z-scan signal from a weak and time delayed probe beam is observed. The probe beam Z-scan signal is comparable in magnitude to the Z-scan signal of the intense pump beam, clearly showing the dominance of the effective fifth order nonlinearity due to the pump beam generated free carriers in the overall nonlinear response of semiconductor-doped glass. The estimated magnitude of the fifth order nonlinearity is consistent with that obtained from earlier reported experiments.