Optical bistability in semiconductor waveguides

S. Laval

Nonlinear semiconductor waveguides are investigated with respect to their use for optical bistability and temporal optical switching with results given for silicon-on-sapphire devices. The performance of the waveguides is assessed with comparisons to nonlinear Fabry-Perot cavities, and the conditions for optical bistability are theoretically shown to be possible by combining a waveguide and a diffraction-grating coupler. Structures experimentally investigated include semiconductor layers epitaxially grown on substrates having low refractive indices. Optical switching is reported on reflected or transmitted beams and on the guided-wave intensity by means of excitation pulses in the nanosecond or picosecond range. The data confirm the usefulness of nonlinear waveguides as alternative devices for temporal optical switching and logic-gate development in part due to their good switching times.

Stanley Desmond Smith, Brian S. Wherrett

Chi C. Sung, C. M. Bowden

John Gerard McInerney, Yuan Li, Theodore C. Salvi +1 more

Bistable optical devices (BODs) are interesting for optical switching, limiting, memory, signal conditioning and logic [1]. Semiconductor-based BODs are especially promising because their large nonlinearities should permit development of compact, rugged and efficient systems. Here we concentrate on active semiconductor BODs and switches, that is those which have internal gain, such as injection lasers and amplifiers.

Tae‐Hoon Yoon, Young‐Il Kim, Kyung-Whan Park +2 more

In this work, we studied the effect of structural chirping on optical bistability in (lambda) /4-shifted semiconductor distributed-feedback, (DFB) devices, such as an etalon with nonlinear mirrors, a (lambda) /4-shifted DFB waveguide, and a (lambda) /4-shifted DFB laser amplifier. We found that chirped DFB devices exhibit bistable switching at a lower input power.

David A. B. Miller