Optical switches: A new low

Daniel J. Gauthier, Bonnie L. Schmittberger, Joel A. Greenberg

We demonstrate that Sisyphus cooling of atoms leads to a new source of nonlinear optical interaction that drastically increases the interaction strength. This increased coupling leads to low-threshold pattern formation, with applications in single-photon switching.

Hyatt M. Gibbs

Konstantin Y. Nikitenko, Vyacheslav A. Trofimov

In our report a new type of optical bistability is proposed. It is based on a violation of Snell's law of inclined laser beam that is reflected from a mirror having a hole at its axis. We demonstrate switching of light power passed through the hole. Time of switching is less than 10-13 c. In our opinion, this scheme has very good characteristics for creation of its base the optical switching element with very short time of switching and low energy of switching since we use refractive properties of medium.

Zhigang Zang, Yujun Zhang

We propose a new optical bistable device (OBD), which is constructed by connecting two symmetrical fiber Bragg gratings with a ytterbium-doped fiber to form a nonlinear Fabry–Perot cavity. The principle of this new OBD is described using the transfer-matrix method, and the two groups of transmitted and reflected optical bistability loops under different parameters are investigated symmetrically. Compared with single fiber Bragg grating switching, whose switching power is greater than 2 kW, this new device has evident merits in reducing the switching power to less than 45 mW.

Jiaye Chen, Xiaogang Liu