Temperature dependences of time-resolved picosecond beam coupling gains and losses in semi-insulating undoped GaAs and CdTe:Ga are investigated experimentally at a wavelength of 1.064 &mgr;m. In the temperature range of283–363 Ka weak temperature dependence of the free-carrier energy transfer gain is observed at high fluence excitation, while photorefractive beam coupling gains and nonlinear absorption losses are found to exhibit no clear temperature dependence. A numerical simulation of the dynamics of photoexcited carriers and space-charge fields is also performed in order to examine the experimental results. ©1997 American Institute of Physics.