State-of-the-art in 1.55 µm ultrafast InGaAs photoconductors, and the use of signal-processing techniques to extract the photocarrier lifetime

A summary of ultrafast In0.53Ga0.47As photoconductors at λ = 1.55 µm is provided, with emphasis placed on recent ion-implanted and ErAs-nanoparticulate materials that have displayed response times <1 ps. Signal-processing techniques are then developed to deconvolve the photocarrier lifetime from pump–probe photo-transmission data. These techniques are formulated in a way that allows the estimation of photocarrier lifetime values less than the pump–probe laser pulse width, and are applied to the fastest ErAs:In0.53Ga0.47As material measured to date with a photocarrier lifetime of ≈0.3 ps.