Two-photon absorption and Kerr coefficients of silicon for 850–2200nm

The degenerate two-photon absorption coefficient β and Kerr nonlinearity n2 are measured for bulk Si at 300K using 200fs pulses with carrier wavelength of 850<λ<2200nm for which indirect gap transitions occur. With a broad peak near the indirect gap and maximum value of 2±0.5cm∕GW, the dispersion of β compares favorably with theoretical calculations of Garcia and Kalyanaraman [J. Phys. B 39, 2737 (2006)]. Within our wavelength range, n2 varies by a factor of 4 with a peak value of 1.2×10−13cm2∕W at λ=1800nm.