Anisotropic nonlinear response of silicon in the near-infrared region

Abstract

The authors characterize experimentally the anisotropy of two-photon absorption and the Kerr nonlinearity in silicon over a broad spectral region in the near infrared using the $z$ -scan technique. The results show that both of these parameters decrease by about 12% along the [0 1 0] direction compared with the $\left[01\overline{1}\right]$ direction, and this change occurs for wavelengths in the range of $1.2–2.4\mu \mathrm{m}$ .