Ultrafast saturable absorption at 1.55 μm in heavy-ion-irradiated quantum-well vertical cavity

Measurements of absorption saturation in heavy-ion-irradiated InGaAs/InAlAs multiplequantum-well reflection-mode vertical-cavity devices have been performed with short pulses at 1.55 μm and repetition rates up to 10 GHz. The relaxation time was essentially independent of the pulse repetition rate and optical excitation fluence, with a lower value of 2.4 ps for an ion dose of $1012$ $cm−2.$ Efficient optical switching was obtained, with a saturation energy smaller than 12 pJ, a contrast ratio up to 3.5:1, and a switching amplitude up to 20% of the incident signal. A relaxation model accounting for capture and recombination on defect levels indicates an upper limit of 2 ps of the defect level recombination time.