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physica status solidi (b)

Optical Bistability in Nonlinear Composite Media

Tao Pan, Zhenya Li

Published Apr 1, 2000• 7 citations
Publisher

Abstract

The mean-field approximation method is proposed to investigate the intrinsic optical bistability in nonlinear composite media, which consists of nonlinear metallic granules embedded in nonlinear dielectric host. The effect of nonlinear susceptibility on the bistable behavior is analyzed. It is found that nonlinear metallic granules and nonlinear host medium have different effects and the nonlinearity of metallic granules is more effective in minimizing the threshould value of the bistable behavior. We also investigate the effect of the shape factor of metallic granules on the threshold value.

DOI
10.1002/1521-3951(200004)218:2<591::aid-pssb591>3.0.co;2-e

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The mean-field approximation method is proposed to investigate the intrinsic optical bistability in nonlinear composite media, which consists of nonlinear metallic granules embedded in nonlinear dielectric host. The effect of nonlinear susceptibility on the bistable behavior is analyzed. It is found that nonlinear metallic granules and nonlinear host medium have different effects and the nonlinearity of metallic granules is more effective in minimizing the threshould value of the bistable behavior. We also investigate the effect of the shape factor of metallic granules on the threshold value.
Abstract Optically bistable behaviour is demonstrated for systems consisting of optically nonlinear microcrystallites embedded in an optically linear metal or dielectric. The most simple version of the local‐field correction serves as feedback mechanism thus avoiding external mirrors. The dielectric function for macroscopic samples is calculated with Garnett's effective medium theory. Numerical examples for the reflectivity and the transmissivity are given for an embedded dielectric with exciton‐like nonlinearity.
The propagation of electromagnetic waves in a nonlinear medium composed of semiconductor microcrystallites embedded in a host medium has been investigated. Explicit results are given for the case of cadmium sulfide grains in glass when a saturable two-level approximation is used for the nonlinear dielectric function. The bistable behavior, noticed earlier by Chemla and Miller [ Opt. Lett.11, 522 ( 1986)], for single grains is manifested in the propagation studies conducted here by the occurrence of a discontinuity in the index of refraction in the medium. Various approximations are used to obtain the optical bistability properties. Possible applications of this feature are pointed out.
The intrinsic optical bistability (OB) of graded core-shell granular composites is investigated. The coated particles are made of cores with gradient dielectric function ∊ c (r) = A(r/a) k and nonlinear shells. In view of the exponential distribution of the core dielectric constant, the potential functions of each region are obtained by solving the Maxwell equations, and the mathematical expressions of electric field in the shells and cores are determined. Numerical study reveals that the optical bistable threshold and the threshold width of the composite medium are dependent on the shell thickness, core dielectric exponent, and power function coefficient. The optical bistable width increases with the decreasing shell thickness and the power exponent and with the increasing power function coefficient.
An effective-medium theory for nonlinear spherical particles embedded in a linear host medium is developed. The formulation is based on a T-matrix approach. Introduction of a field-dependent T matrix enables one to obtain an exact expression for effective dielectric constant of a medium with spherical grains. In the special cases of low-field values, the results obtained previously for the third- and fifth-order nonlinear susceptibilities of the medium are recovered. The resonance behavior of the effective dielectric constant and intrinsic optical bistability are also discussed.
Optical bistability has been investigated in granular metal-dielectric composite media at high temperatures. Based on Maxwell-Garnett approximation and the spe ctralrepresentation, we calculate numerically the electric field as a function of the applied electric field E２０,and thus the opticalbistability can be studied.We show that the width of optical bistability decreases with increasing temperature.Furthermore, we study the dependence of the refractive index and the extinction coefficient on the temperature.