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Holographic Time of Flight

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Photo-Excited Processes, Diagnostics and Applications

Abstract

The Holographic Time of Flight (HTOF) method for the all-optical, contact-less investigation of charge transport in non-centrosymmetric insulators and semiconductors is based on the instantaneous photoexcitation of a spatially modulated distribution of charge carriers and on the linear electro-optic (Pockels) effect to visualize a charge-displacement by its associated refractive index change. It can be used with a free-carrier density so low that it does not otherwise have any detectable influence on the optical properties of a material, and with short free carrier lifetimes of the order of nanoseconds or less. HTOF is an especially striking example of how several independent linear and nonlinear light-matter interaction mechanisms can join to deliver a peculiar wave-mixing effect that is directly determined by a seemingly unrelated microscopic parameter: the free-carrier mobility. This chapter reviews the HTOF method and provides a detailed theoretical treatment that will be invaluable to experimentalists interested in applying this method to new materials. The author discusses the experimental parameters that influence the HTOF results and presents the basic assumptions and experimental conditions that allow the characterization of charge transport in the bulk of a material, with a sub-nanosecond time resolution only limited by the duration of the laser pulses, and for transport lengths down to a fraction of a micrometer.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Physics, Lehigh University, Bethlehem, PA, 18015, USA

    Ivan Biaggio

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  1. Ivan Biaggio
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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Holon Academic Institute of Technology, Israel

    A. Peled

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© 2003 Kluwer Academic Publishers

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Biaggio, I. (2003). Holographic Time of Flight. In: Peled, A. (eds) Photo-Excited Processes, Diagnostics and Applications. Springer, Boston, MA. https://doi.org/10.1007/1-4020-2610-2_4

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/1-4020-2610-2_4

  • Publisher Name: Springer, Boston, MA

  • Print ISBN: 978-1-4020-7527-8

  • Online ISBN: 978-1-4020-2610-2

  • eBook Packages: Springer Book Archive

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