Femtosecond measurement of laser-induced phase transformation in GaAs:linear and nonlinear properties

Presentation Date: 

Saturday, January 1, 1994

Location: 

OSA Annual Meeting (Dallas, TX)
We measured the dielectric constant and second-harmonic generation in GaAs following femtosecond laser-pulse excitation. From these measurements, we extract the behavior of the second-order optical susceptibility, which monitors crystal symmetry, during a laser-induced phase transformation. This is the first time, to our knowledge, that the effect of large changes in the dielectric constant has been taken into account explicitly in determining the second-order susceptibility.