Abstract
There has been considerable interests in InSb as a nonlinear medium for the CO2 laser due to its large nonlinearity. Optical bistability and optical switching are among some of the recent applications. The two-photon absorption of InSb has been studied extensively in the past. However, no conclusive experimental value has been established. We report here an accurate measurement of the two-photon absorption coefficient β making use of the self-defocusing effect.1 The defocusing process is the direct result of self-phase modulation and plasma-induced refractive-index change. The self-defocusing experiment was performed at two CO2 laser wavelengths of 10.6 and 9.6 μm. From the experimental data, the value of β can be calculated using a beam propagation computer code. It is in strong disagreement with a previous measurement.2 The frequency dependence of β is consistent with a tunneling process and is not consistent with a perturbation calculation either with or without the nonparabolic band approximation.
© 1987 Optical Society of America
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