Free carrier phase modulation in zinc oxide films

What is it about?

The electric modulation of the phase of light passing through a thin zinc oxide film sandwiched between a transparent and a reflecting contact layer.

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Why is it important?

We demonstrate the strong phase modulation due to the effects of free carriers by means of a sensitive nonlinear ellipsometric setup. This is important in electro-optic modulator or polarization control and it is studied on a versatile material such as zinc oxide which can feature plasma resonance in the near infrared upon doping.