Crosstalk between two-photon and two-color (two-photon) excitation in optical beam induced current generation with two confocal excitation beams

We analyze the influence of residual two-photon excitation (2PE) in two-color (two-photon) optical beam induced current (2CE-OBIC) generation in wide band gap semiconductor samples. 2CE-OBIC generation is accomplished with two confocal excitation beams of separation angle θ and wavelengths λ1 and λ2 where λe-1=λ1-1+λ2-1, λe = hc/Eb, h is the Planck's constant, c is speed of light in vacuum, and Eb is the energy band gap. Because the conduction band of the sample is a continuum, at least one excitation beam would also contribute an undesirable 2PE-OBIC signal that degrades the signal-to-noise ratio of the measured 2CE-OBIC response and broadens the effective OBIC distribution in the sample particularly when θ ≠ 0 or π. We show that the deleterious effects of crosstalk are reduced by a careful selection of λ1 and λ2 and the relative excitation beam intensities. λ1 and λ2 should be chosen to minimize the ratio of the two-photon absorption coefficients (β1, β2) to the 2CE absorption coefficient β12 or at least satisfy the constraint: β1 + β2 ⩽ β12. Keeping the two excitation intensities equal is beneficial only when β1 = β2. Otherwise, it is advantageous to bias the intensity ratio towards the wavelength with a lower 2PE absorption coefficient.