Observation of thermal effects due to an optical incident signal and high fluence on InGaAs/InP multiple-quantum-well saturable absorber nonlinear mirrors: evolution of characteristics and time constants

We observe the effects of a temperature increase on the characteristics of an InGaAs/InP multiple-quantum-well (MQW) saturable absorber (SA) in a microcavity provided by an optical input signal under normal incidence. The temperature increase on the nonlinear mirror (NLM) due to an optical signal depends on the energy time filling factor (FF) of this input signal (analogous to the signal's duty cycle, which is the ratio between the repetition period and the pulse duration) and hence depends on the repetition rate of the signal for a given pulse time width. This increase in temperature is mostly responsible for a shift in the reflectivity spectrum of the device toward higher wavelengths. In this experimental study, we show the shift of the resonance cavity versus the optical input power at high FF, and we evaluate the thermal time constant of an Fe-doped InGaAs/InP MQW NLM. Finally, we report the consequences of such thermal effects and high fluence on the reflectivity and contrast of two different InGaAs/InP NLMs when the input signal FF rises up to 25%, which gets close to telecommunication transmission conditions.