Giant quintic nonlinearities at slow light level in semiconductor quantum wells

Abstract

Enhancement of higher order nonlinear susceptibilities are investigated in three level quantum well with a ladder configuration in the regime of electromagnetically induced transparency. We have identified the existence of giant third and fifth order nonlinear susceptibilities of the order ~10 ⁄ at pump wavelength of 9.6 . The group velocity is reported to be slowed down by 10 4 times compared to the speed of light in vacuum.