Ultrasensitive femtosecond two-photon detector with resonantly enhanced nonlinear absorption

We report on two-photon detection based on nonlinear absorption between subbands in quantum wells. Resonantly enhanced nonlinear absorption, 6 orders of magnitude higher than that of typical bulk semiconductors, leads to a threshold power density for quadratic detection as low as 0.1 W/cm2 and to femtosecond time resolution. The approach facilitates dynamic characterization of the optical light field of infrared emitters with unprecedented sensitivity. We also present a new method for determining the intersubband and intrasubband scattering times by means of autocorrelation measurements.