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Physical Review Letters

Observation of Biexcitonic Optical Bistability and Optical Limiting in CuCl

Nasser N. Peyghambarian, H. M. Gibbs, Michael C. Rushford, Doreen A. Weinberger

Published Oct 31, 1983• 69 citations
Publisher

Abstract

Experimental evidence for the occurrence of optical bistability using the biexciton two-photon resonance in CuCl is presented. These observations agree with recent theoretical predictions that require an intensity of 10 MW/${\mathrm{cm}}^{2}$ and 10-\ensuremath{\mu}m-thick etalons with 90% reflective coatings. Earlier much less demanding predictions neglected two important physical effects: unsaturable background absorption at the biexciton from the tail of the exciton resonance and broadening of the biexciton resonance with intensity.

DOI
10.1103/physrevlett.51.1692

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Applied Physics Letters•Sep 15, 1979•443 citations
Experimental evidence for the occurrence of optical bistability using the biexciton two-photon resonance in CuCl is presented. These observations agree with recent theoretical predictions that require an intensity of 10 MW/cm2{\mathrm{cm}}^{2}cm2 and 10-\ensuremath{\mu}m-thick etalons with 90% reflective coatings. Earlier much less demanding predictions neglected two important physical effects: unsaturable background absorption at the biexciton from the tail of the exciton resonance and broadening of the biexciton resonance with intensity.
It is well established that biexcitons can be generated directly by two-photon absorption in CuCI. The intensity dependent nonlinearity arising from this resonance can be used to obtain optical bistability. Recently, Koch and Haug(1) and also Hanamura(2) have predicted the possibility of a bistable operation in a CuCI Fabry-Perot etalon. Hanamura uses a density matrix formalism and predicts that the switching can respond in a picosecond time scale due to the virtual formation of biexcitons. Koch and Haug obtain the complex dielectric function from a Green's function formalism and suggest a bistable behavior for a thin CuCI slab. They use a constant value for the biexciton linewidth, γxx, and a zero value for the exciton linewidth, γx. Their results indicate that a 1-μm-thick CuCI etalon, with natural reflecting surfaces, can give rise to bistability with a switch-on intensity of about 0.1 MW/cm2. The biexciton resonance, however, is located on the tail of the exciton resonance, which acts as a background absorption.
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.