Ultrafast processes in semiconductors

Study of ultrafast processes occurring in semiconductors and their device structures on time scales of pico-and femtoseconds is of much current interest for understanding non-equilibrium carrier dynamics in semiconductors and for determining performance limits of high speed devices, Ultrashort laser pulses ate used in these studies for optical excitation of the semiconductors. In this paper, we briefly describe the main areas of research and development activities in this field. Also described are some of the picosecond time resolved measurements performed by us to determine the time constants characterizing hot carrier, exciton and phonon relaxation dynamics in prototype II-VI and III-V semiconductors.