Abstract

All optical devices promise the potential for extremely fast operational speeds, unattainable with electronics or electro-optic hybrid devices, and their core must be a material with outstanding optical tunability. Many different materials and methods have been suggested to achieve modulation such as phase changes [1], thermo-optic effects [2], phase shifting through carrier injection [3], and electro-absorption [4]. While some of these devices have been shown to achieve operational speeds more than 10 GHz with appreciable modulation, for many devices there is still a trade-off between the speed and modulation depth. Here, we present temporal studies of highly aluminum doped zinc oxide (AZO) thin films using a pump-probe technique. We demonstrate that under UV pumping they exhibit remarkable modulation with speeds an order of magnitude faster than current devices at 1.3 µm.

© 2015 IEEE