  The authors study the ultrafast switching-on and -off of planar GaAs/AlAs
microcavities. Up to 0.8% refractive index changes are achieved by optically
exciting free carriers at 1720 nm and a pulse energy of 1.8 micro Joules. The
cavity resonance is dynamically tracked by measuring reflectivity versus time
delay with tunable laser pulses, and is found to shift by as much as 3.3
linewidths within a few picoseconds. The switching-off occurs with a decay time
of around 50 ps. The authors derive the dynamic behavior of the carrier density
and of the complex refractive index. They propose that the inferred 10 GHz
switching rate may be tenfold improved by optimized sample growth.
