High-Speed Quadratic Electrooptic Nonlinearity in dc-Biased InP

We present experimental data on degenerate four-wave mixing as well as simulation results of fast optical nonlinearities in highly-excited semi-insulating InP under applied dc-field. Hot-electron transport governed enhancement of optical nonlinearity is obtained by applying a dc-field of 10-14 kV/cm at full-modulation depth of a light-interference pattern. The hydrodynamic model, which incorporates both free-carrier and photorefractive nonlinearities is used to explain the experimentally observed features. We show that the enhancement of optical nonlinearity is due to the quadratic electrooptic effect.