Picosecond excitonic absorption recovery of 100 nm GaAs/AlGaAs narrow multiple quantum-well wires

We report the time-resolved absorption measurement of narrow multiple quantum-well (MQW) wires to investigate their fast recoveries from excitonic absorption bleaching. Wires down to 130 nm were fabricated from MQWs using focused ion beam lithography and electron cyclotron-resonance chlorine-plasma etching. In this structure, the photoexcited carriers diffuse toward the sidewalls and recombine on the surface of the sidewalls. We show that the strong optical nonlinearity of excitons is preserved, even in wires of 130 nm width, and having a fast recovery time in the picosecond region. We also briefly discuss the possibility of making quantum wires which have a faster recovery time and larger optical nonlinearity.