Enhancement of nonlinear optical response of weakly confined excitons in GaAs thin films by spectrally rectangle-shape-pulse-excitation

We report the enhancement of the nonlinear optical response of the weakly confined excitons with use of spectrally rectangular pulse. The nonlinear optical response was investigated as a function of excitation energy by a degenerate four-wave-mixing (DFWM) technique. In the case that the laser pulse with the controlled spectral shape excites the plural exciton states simultaneously, the DFWM signal intensity is enhanced by a factor of two in comparison with the intensity under the excitation of a single exciton state. This enhancement is caused by the superposition of the nonlinear optical responses from the plural exciton states.