Enhancement of optical nonlinearity in p-type semiconductor quantum wells due to confinement and stress

Abstract

It is shown that large values of the third‐order nonlinear susceptibility χ⁽³⁾ can be obtained in p‐type semiconductor quantum wells (e.g., GaInAs‐AlInAs) due to strong valence‐band nonparabolicity. The strong nonparabolicity in valence bands arises from the mixing of heavy and light hole states via quantum well potential. It is further shown that stress can modify χ⁽³⁾ substantially.