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CONTENTS 1. Introduction 2. Theory 3. Experiment and data 3.1. Experiment 3.2. Data 4. Comparison of ß2 values to theory 4.1. Two-photon absorption theory 4.2. Comparison to theory 5. Self-refraction 6. Optical limiter 7. Conclusion 8. Acknowledgments 9. References Abstract. Two-photon absorption coefficients ß2 of ten direct gap semiconductors with band-gap energy Eg varying between 1.4 and 3.7 eV were measured using 1.06 pm and 0.53 pm picosecond pulses. ß2 was found to scale as E93, as predicted by theory for the samples measured. Extension of the empirical relationship between ß2 and Eg to InSb with Eg = 0.2 eV also provides agreement between previously measured values and the predicted ß2. In addition, the absolute values of ß2 are in excellent agreement (the average difference being <26 %) with recent theory, which includes the effects of nonparabolic bands. The nonlinear refraction induced in these materials was monitored and found to agree well with the assumption that the self-refraction originates from the two-photon-generated free carriers. The observed self-defocusing yields an effective nonlinear index as much as two orders of magnitude larger than CS2 for comparable irradiances. This self-defocusing, in conjunction with twophoton absorption, was used to construct a simple, effective optical limiter that has high transmission at low input irradiance and low transmission at high input irradiance. The device is the optical analog of a Zener diode.

We propose a spin transistor using only non-magnetic materials that exploits the characteristics of bulk inversion asymmetry (BIA) in (110) symmetric quantum wells. We show that extremely large spin splittings due to BIA are possible in (110) InAs/GaSb/AlSb heterostructures, which together with the enhanced spin decay times in (110) quantum wells demonstrates the potential for exploitation of BIA effects in semiconductor spintronics devices. Spin injection and detection is achieved using spin-dependent resonant interband tunneling and spin transistor action is realized through control of the electron spin lifetime in an InAs lateral transport channel using an applied electric field (Rashba effect). This device may also be used as a spin valve, or a magnetic field sensor. The electronic structure and spin relaxation times for the spin transistor proposed here are calculated using a nonperturbative 14-band k · p nanostructure model.

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