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arXiv:0910.1015

All-optical transistor action by off-resonant activation at laser threshold

Davıd L. Andrews, David S. Bradshaw

Published Oct 6, 2009• 1 citation
arXivHTMLPDF

Abstract

The development of viable all-optical data processing systems has immense importance for both the computing and telecommunication industries, but device realization remains elusive. In this Letter, we propose an innovative mechanism deployed as a basis for all optical transistor action. In detail, it is determined that an optically pumped system, operating just below laser threshold, can exhibit a greatly enhanced output on application of an off-resonant beam of sufficient intensity. The electrodynamics of the underlying, nonlinear optical mechanism is analyzed, model calculations are performed, and the results are illustrated graphically.

DOI
10.48550/arxiv.0910.1015

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The development of viable all-optical data processing systems has immense importance for both the computing and telecommunication industries, but device realization remains elusive. In this Letter, we propose an innovative mechanism deployed as a basis for all optical transistor action. In detail, it is determined that an optically pumped system, operating just below laser threshold, can exhibit a greatly enhanced output on application of an off-resonant beam of sufficient intensity. The electrodynamics of the underlying, nonlinear optical mechanism is analyzed, model calculations are performed, and the results are illustrated graphically.
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We describe all-optical transistor action in photonic band gap materials doped with active atoms. In the presence of a photonic band gap (PBG) material, a coherent laser beam with the frequency slightly detuned from the resonant atomic transition frequency can drive a collection of two-level atoms to an almost totally inverted state, a phenomenon strictly forbidden in ordinary vacuum. By changing the laser field intensity in the neighborhood of a threshold value, it is possible to drive the atomic system through a transition from states in which the atoms populate preferentially the ground level to almost totally inverted states. In this process, the atomic system switches from a passive medium (highly absorptive) to a active medium (highly amplifying). The switching action in a PBG material is not associated with operating near a narrow cavity resonance with conventional trade-off between switching time and switching threshold intensity. Rather it is associated with an abrupt discontinuity in the engineered broad band electromagnetic density of states of the PBG material. We demonstrate all-optical transistor action in PBG materials by analyzing the absorption spectrum of a second probe laser beam and we show that the probe beam experience a substantial differential gain by slight intensity modulations in the control laser field.
We describe all-optical transistor action in photonic bandgap (PBG) materials doped with active atoms and analyse the advantages of this system over other all-optical transistor proposals. In the presence of a PBG material, a coherent laser beam with the frequency slightly detuned from the resonant atomic transition frequency can drive a collection of two-level atoms to an almost totally inverted state, a phenomenon strictly forbidden in ordinary vacuum. By varying the laser field intensity in the neighbourhood of a threshold value, it is possible to drive the atomic system through a transition from states in which the atoms populate preferentially the ground level to almost totally inverted states. In this process, the atomic system switches from a passive medium (highly absorptive) to a active medium (highly amplifying). The large differential gain exhibited by the atomic medium is very robust with respect to nonradiative relaxation and dephasing mechanisms. The switching action in a PBG material is not associated with operation near a narrow cavity resonance with conventional trade-off between switching time and switching threshold intensity. Rather it is associated with an abrupt discontinuity in the engineered broad-band electromagnetic density of states of the PBG material. We demonstrate all-optical transistor action in PBG materials by analysing the absorption spectrum of a second probe laser beam and we show that the probe beam experiences a substantial differential gain by slight intensity modulations in the control laser field. Under certain conditions, the fluctuations in the number of totally inverted atoms that contribute to the amplification process are strongly diminished (the statistics of the excited atoms becomes sub-Poissonian), which, in turn, determines a very low-noise regime of amplification.
In the optical excitation of many nanoscale systems, the primary result of photon absorption is an electronic excitation that is typically followed by ultrafast relaxation processes. The losses associated with such relaxation generally produce a partial degradation of the optical energy acquired, before any ensuing photon emission occurs. Recent work has shown that the intensity and directional character of such emission may be significantly influenced through engagement with a completely off-resonant probe laser beam of sufficient intensity: the mechanism for this optical coupling is a secondorder nonlinearity. It is anticipated that the facility to actively control fluorescent emission in this way may lead to new opportunities in a variety of applications where molecular chromophores or quantum dots are used. In the latter connection it should prove possible to exploit the particle size dependence of the nonlinear optical dispersion, as well as that of the emission wavelength. Specific characteristics of the effect are calculated, and suitable experimental implementations of the mechanism are proposed. We anticipate that this all-optical control device may introduce significant new perspectives to fluorescence imaging techniques and other analytical applications.
The transmission of information as optical signals encoded on light waves traveling through optical fibers and optical networks is increasingly moving to shorter and shorter distance scales. In the near future, optical networking is poised to supersede conventional transmission over electric wires and electronic networks for computer-to-computer communications, chip-to-chip communications, and even on-chip communications. The ever-increasing demand for faster and more reliable devices to process the optical signals offers new opportunities in developing all-optical signal processing systems (systems in which one optical signal controls another, thereby adding "intelligence" to the optical networks). All-optical switches, two-state and many-state all-optical memories, all-optical limiters, all-optical discriminators and all-optical transistors are only a few of the many devices proposed during the last two decades. The "all-optical" label is commonly used to distinguish the devices that do not involve dissipative electronic transport and require essentially no electrical communication of information. The all-optical transistor action was first observed in the context of optical bistability [1] and consists in a strong differential gain regime, in which, for small variations in the input intensity, the output intensity has a very strong variation. This analog operation is for all-optical input what transistor action is for electrical inputs.
Resonance energy transfer (RET) is a near-field mechanism for propagating optical energy between particles with suitably matching frequency response. The process communicates electronic excitation between suitably disposed (donor and acceptor) dipoles in close proximity, activated on excitation of the donor. In a multi-component system the transfer of excitation between any given donor and acceptor is usually passive, and it competes with loss mechanisms such as radiative decay and the possibility of transfer to one or more other acceptors. It thus appears that any potential exploitation of RET for optical switching is compromised by the innate passivity of the process. Now it emerges that there is a direct, all-optical route to introduce the necessary control. In a system constructed to satisfy frequency-matching conditions, but designedly to inhibit RET by geometric configuration, the throughput of laser pulses can facilitate energy transfer processes that would otherwise be forbidden, by laser-assisted resonant energy transfer. Suitably configuring an arrangement of transition dipoles, it proves possible to design parallel planar arrays of optical donor and acceptor particles such that the transfer of energy from any single donor, to its counterpart in the opposing plane, can be switched by appropriate laser radiation. As the energy transfer is itself mediated electromagnetically, the device operates as an optical transistor. For simplicity, a pair of two-dimensional arrays is envisaged, each consisting of equally spaced, identical particles arranged on a square lattice. A detailed appraisal of the system, including a consideration of competing processes, suggests that this configuration offers a new basis for the design of optically activated nanoscale transistor arrays.