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Electronics Letters

Submilliwatt optical bistability in a coated InGaAs/InP multiquantum well waveguide Fabry–Perot cavity

David T. Neilson, Jeffrey E. Ehrlich, Paul Meredith, Andy C. Walker, G. T. Kennedy, R. S. Grant, P.D. Roberts, W. Sibbett, M. Hopkinson, M.A. Pate

Published Aug 19, 1993• 4 citations
Publisher

Abstract

The observation of submilliwatt switching and optical bistability in an InGaAs/InP MQW waveguide Fabry–Perot cavity using diode laser sources is reported. Second-order bistability was also observed, with a higher power colour-centre laser source, showing that optically-induced phase shifts of greater than 2π can be achieved at power levels of less than 5mW. A switch contrast of ̃3:1 was observed.

DOI
10.1049/el:19931024

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IEEE Photonics Technology Letters•Apr 1, 1996•12 citations
The observation of submilliwatt switching and optical bistability in an InGaAs/InP MQW waveguide Fabry–Perot cavity using diode laser sources is reported. Second-order bistability was also observed, with a higher power colour-centre laser source, showing that optically-induced phase shifts of greater than 2π can be achieved at power levels of less than 5mW. A switch contrast of ̃3:1 was observed.
Optical bistability in a single quantum well waveguide resonator in the InP/InGaAsP material system is demonstrated. High contrast ratio (≳3:1) and switching at low power (≊1.5 mW) was obtained by using a single quantum well at a wavelength near the maximum nonlinear refractive index change and by depositing a reflective coating on the rear end of the waveguide. Clear optical bistability is observed in a wide wavelength range of 1480–1525 nm. Due to the low input power, cw operation of the device was possible at room temperature.
We demonstrate optically bistable (light switching light) operation in a room-temperature InGaAsP Fabry-Perot amplifier. The amplifier is an InGaAsP/InP laser structure biased at ~95% of its lasing threshold. It is switched with <3 μW of optical power provided by the mechanically chopped output of a quasi-single-mode InGaAsP/InP laser. The experimental apparatus is depicted in Fig, 1. A change in the refractive Index in the amplifier of only 5 × 10−4 is sufficient to cause switching. Input and output pulses from the nonlinear amplifier are shown in Fig. 2 when the source frequency is initially detuned by 14 GHz from the closest Fabry-Perot mode of the amplifier. Smaller switching powers are required at lesser detunings. The physical mechanism of the intensity-dependent change of the refractive index is thought to be the change in carrier density resulting from stimulated recombination of free carriers.
We report on low-power optical bistability in a vertical cavity structure at 1.55-μm wavelength due to the bandgap resonant dispersive optical nonlinearity of InGaAsP. In this structure, a GaAs-AlAs Bragg reflector grown on GaAs and the nonlinear medium grown on InP are bonded through wafer-fusion, leading to a high-quality vertical cavity after deposition of a top dielectric mirror. This device shows interesting characteristics for optical switching applications at fiber communication wavelengths, such as a switching contrast higher than 8:1 in the reflective mode and a bistability threshold power as low as 0.6 mW. True steady-state memory effect is observed with continuous-wave input, and the device switching time is in the ns range.