Abstract

Current research in nonlinear optics has been concentrated in the wavelength, regimes that. extend from the infrared to the uv. However, little effort, has been devoted to the understanding of nonlinear materials in the millimeter wave regime in spite of the fact that coherent sources are currently available. Few experiments^1,2,3 have been performed that probe the material requirements. We present basic studies of millimeter wave nonlinearities arising from the artificially induced band non-parabolicity in superlattices (SL), Using GaAs-AlGaAs SL as an example, we predict third order optical susceptibilities as high as 1 esu, material response times of the order of 1 picosecond, and the phenomenon of self-induced transparency

© 1988 Optical Society of America