LINEAR AND NONLINEAR OPTICAL-PROPERTIES OF ZNCDTE MONOCRYSTALS

The linear optical properties of Zn0.87Cd0.13Te are characterized at liquid helium and at room temperatures. When an electron-hole plasma is created by a strong light pump pulse, important optical nonlinearities show up at room temperature in ''pump and test'' measurements. They lead to an induced absorption and to pulse deflection, which are determined separately. We find for the real DELTAn(eh)' and imaginary DELTAn(eh)'' parts of the nonlinear index of refraction per electron-hole pair DELTAn(eh)' = - 4.4 x 10(-19) cm3 and DELTAn(eh)'' = 2.2 x 10(-21) cm3, respectively. The dynamics of both nonlinear effects is studied as a function of the time delay between the pump and test pulses and a decay time of 9 ns is found, which is attributed to the lifetime of the plasma.