Dynamical ultrafast all-optical switching of planar GaAs/AIAs photonic microcavities

The authors study the ultrafast switching-on and -off of planar GaAs/AlAs microcavities. Up to 0.8% refractive index changes are achieved by optically exciting free carriers at lambda=1720 nm and pulse energy E-pump=1.8 +/- 0.18 mu J. The cavity resonance is dynamically tracked by measuring reflectivity versus time delay with tunable laser pulses, and is found to shift by as much as 3.3 linewidths within a few picoseconds. The switching-off occurs with a decay time of similar to 50 ps. They derive the dynamic behavior of the carrier density and of the complex refractive index. They propose that the inferred 10 GHz switching rate may be tenfold improved by optimized sample growth.