Free carrier modulation of a sub-bandgap CW laser beam: A Si optoelectronic chopper

In this work we introduced two beam photocarrier cross-modulation for creation of an optically driven photonic laser beam modulator using a semiconductor wafer as the active medium. Unlike other laser beam modulators, the process of modulation of an unmodulated sub-bandgap laser beam was made possible by generating a spatially- and free-carrier density-wave-dependent infrared absorption coefficient in the bulk of the semiconductor, following absorption of a collinear super-bandgap modulated laser beam. The experimental results showed that the modulation efficiency strongly depends on the transport parameters of the semiconductor material and on the power of the super-bandgap laser beam.