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physica status solidi (b)

Intrinsic Optical Bistability in a Single Quantum Well Embedded in a Planar Microcavity

Xin Chen, Mufei Xiao

Published Jun 1, 1998• 0 citations
Publisher

Abstract

On the basis of a local-field theory, the field including the third-order nonlinearity in the quantum-well microcavity structure is rigorously derived, and the expression of optical absorption is thus obtained. Then, intrinsic optical bistability arising from local-field feedback in a square quantum well embedded in a planar microcavity has been studied. The influences of different parameters of the quantum well and microcavity on the optical bistability are discussed.

DOI
10.1002/(sici)1521-3951(199806)207:2<521::aid-pssb521>3.0.co;2-3

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On the basis of a local-field theory, the field including the third-order nonlinearity in the quantum-well microcavity structure is rigorously derived, and the expression of optical absorption is thus obtained. Then, intrinsic optical bistability arising from local-field feedback in a square quantum well embedded in a planar microcavity has been studied. The influences of different parameters of the quantum well and microcavity on the optical bistability are discussed.
On the basis of a local-field theory, the field distribution including third-order nonlinearity in a quantum well microcavity structure is derived, and an expression of intersubband optical absorption is thus obtained. It is found that local-field corrections at certain condition can act as a positive feedback so that a bistability can be established. In a quantum well microcavity structure, by changing the length of the cavity, the angle of incidence, the field confinement and the line widths, one can effectively detune the local-field feedback so that the threshold intensity and the `S'-type loop of the optical bistability can be modified.
We propose a mechanism for achieving optical bistability in semiconductor heterostructures. In contrast to the well-known refractive shift of the Fabry-Perot mode in macroscopic resonators, we consider the bleaching of the exciton Rabi splitting in strong-coupling microcavities and prove that this nonlinear process leads to an optically bistable behavior. Through a model based on the transfer-matrix formalism, we predict the dependence of this effect on specific material parameters and on the nature of the cavity. Numerical calculations are carried out for quantum well embedded cavities and the possibility of room-temperature bistable operation is also discussed. \textcopyright{} 1996 The American Physical Society.
We report an experimental study of the optical bistability in a semiconductor microcavity (MC), consisting of a wedged λ GaAs spacer containing a single 8.5 nm In 0.04 Ga 0.96 As quantum well (QW). Increasing the excitation power, a transition between the normal coupling and the weak coupling regime of the MC modes is observed. At intermediate excitation power the reflectivity spectrum shows the simultaneous presence of three resonances, with a third peak spectrally lying between the two normal modes. Monitoring the reflected signal for different laser energy as a function of the excitation power, we found that optical bistability is observed only at the energy of the third peak. The experimental findings do not agree with transfer matrix calculations based on exciton bleaching, suggesting that more complex nonlinear mechanisms are relevant in the observed bistable behaviour.
We discuss the influences of two different types of mechanisms of quantum coherence on optical bistability in a semiconductor quantum well structure. In the first mechanism, only quantum coherence induced by the resonant coupling of a strong control laser is considered. In the second mechanism, the decay coherence is taken into account under the condition where the control field is weak. In two different cases, optical bistability can be obtained through choosing appropriate physical parameters. Our studies show quantum coherence makes the optical nonlinear effect of the system become stronger, which takes an important role in the process of generating optical bistability. A semiconductor quantum well with flexibility and easy integration in design could potentially be exploited in real solid-state devices.