UC Santa Barbara

We demonstrate subpicosecond photocarrier lifetimes at 1.55 mum in GaSb/ErSb nanoparticle superlattices grown by molecular beam epitaxy. Pump-probe measurements were made with a 1.55 mum mode-locked laser in transmission geometry to determine the photocarrier lifetime. The lifetime is found to be dependent on the size of the ErSb particles, amount of ErSb, and the distance between layers of particles. Through manipulation of these three parameters the photocarrier lifetime can be tuned down to less than 300 fs, the temporal limit of our experiment. (C) 2004 American Institute of Physics.