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Optics Letters

Optical bistability on reflection with an InSb étalon controlled by a guided wave

Dror Sarid, Ralph S. Jameson, Robert K. Hickernell

Published May 1, 1984• 17 citations
Publisher

Abstract

We report experimental results on optical bistability using an InSb étalon gold coated on one face, at 80 K and 5.59-microm wavelength. The bistability, observed on reflection, was controlled by a beam coupled through the edge of the étalon. The geometry lends itself to the possibility of addressing a large number of individual spots, all of which are controlled by the same guided beam.

DOI
10.1364/ol.9.000159

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We report experimental results on optical bistability using an InSb étalon gold coated on one face, at 80 K and 5.59-microm wavelength. The bistability, observed on reflection, was controlled by a beam coupled through the edge of the étalon. The geometry lends itself to the possibility of addressing a large number of individual spots, all of which are controlled by the same guided beam.
We report the first observation of quasi-steady-state optical bistability in an InSb etalon at room temperature as a result of the generation of free carriers through two photon absorption of 10 μm radiation. Nonlinear tuning of the etalon through two free spectral ranges has been achieved, with bistability observed around the two cavity resonances. Switching from a low to high transmission state has been achieved in times less than 10 ns while switching in the opposite direction occurs within 50-100 ns. The experimental results have been successfully fitted to a numerical model of the device.
Optical bistability has been observed in a semiconductor for the first time. The bistable etalon consists of a GaAlAs-GaAs-GaAlAs molecular-beam-epitaxially-grown sandwich with 90% reflectivity coatings. The bistability is primarily dispersive with the nonlinear refractive index arising from light-induced changes in exciton absorption. Using light of frequency just below the exciton peak, we observed bistability from 5 to 120 °K with 40-ns turn-off and subnanosecond turn-on times with 1 mW/μm2 holding intensity.
Optical bistability can be obtained in nonlinear materials either with Fabry-Perot mirrors or without external feedback. When a material is placed between partially reflecting mirrors, a nonlinear Fabry-Perot etalon is formed with the etalon providing an external feedback. Optical bistability and gating occur as a result of a shift in the Fabry-Perot peak when the light intensity is increased (or when a second laser beam is introduced into the cavity). Optical bistability with the external feedback mechanism has been observed in many semiconductors such as bulk GaAs, GaAs-AIGaAs multiple-quantum-well (MQW) structures, InSb, InAs, CdS, CdHgTe, GaSe, and CuCI.
Two current goals in the area of optical bistability are (1) to reduce the power required for switching between two states, and (2) to reduce the material volume (and hence power dissipation). An obvious approach is to minimize the cross-sectional area of the beam, for example by using channel waveguides of the type shown in Fig. 1. A grating milled into the surfaces can be used as the distributed feedback mechanism. In this paper we analyze a channel, guided wave, distributed feedback geometry and present numerical results for InSb waveguides.