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Le Journal de Physique Colloques

OPTICAL BISTABILITY IN MOLECULAR BEAM DEPOSITED ZnSe/BaF2 MULTILAYER INTERFERENCE FILTERS

Alan Miller, Ian T. Muirhead, K. L. Lewis, J. Staromlynska, Kevin R. Welford

Published Jun 1, 1988• 1 citation
Publisher

Abstract

Complete interference filters have been fabricated using ultrahigh vacuum molecular beam techniques and optically assessed. The wavelength dependence of optical bistability is compared with theory between 676 and 521nm for a 6 µm thick filter with ZnSe/BaF2 multilayer reflectors. Both dispersive bistability and bistability due to increasing absorption were observed at 514nm.

DOI
10.1051/jphyscol:1988223

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•Jan 1, 1984•0 citations
Complete interference filters have been fabricated using ultrahigh vacuum molecular beam techniques and optically assessed. The wavelength dependence of optical bistability is compared with theory between 676 and 521nm for a 6 µm thick filter with ZnSe/BaF2 multilayer reflectors. Both dispersive bistability and bistability due to increasing absorption were observed at 514nm.
We observe and compare conditions for cw optical bistability in both thermal-vacuum-deposited and molecular beam grown ZnSe-based interference filters, at He–Ne-laser (633-nm), Kr (647-nm), and Ar-ion (514-nm) wave-lengths. Bistability is observed at 514 and 647 nm and, by inference, should be observable at a number of intervening wavelengths for a single molecular-beam-grown sample. From our theoretical analysis we also demonstrate that observed drift instabilities in filter nonlinear responses correlate with the highest internal irradiance levels.
The optical bistabilities of ZnSe and ZnS interference filters have been studied since 1977 when Karpushko and Sinitsyn reported the first experimental results. We see from papers published that (a) it is appropriate to study and compute optical bistabilities of interference filters by a Fabry-Perot resonator; (b) during the fabrication of bistable optical devices (BOD) the parameters such as incident angles, transmission power, and influence of peak position error on BOD, etc. were not studied in detail; (c) the authors could not resolve the problems of transmission peak height for large absorption materials such as ZnSe. We propose a new method of designing BODs of interference filters to study these problems precisely.
Two-photon optical bistability in commercial thin-film interference filters with ZnS and ZnSe spacers is observed with switching times ≳ 200 μs. The accompanying drifting of the bistability loop in time and laser-induced "damage" indicate a thermal mechanism. The problem of water vapor absorption in such filters must be addressed before the inherent potential and advantages of these devices in two-dimensional image processing applications can be realized. Trans- verse effects in GaAs superlattice etalons are observed which cannot be explained on the basis of a plane-wave analysis. The optical nonlinearity in GaAs and diffraction combine to produce drastic effects on the measured beam profiles and bistable loops, due to an intensity-dependent virtual focus. Lastly, the first observation of optical bistability due to a biexcitonic nonlinearity in CuCl etalons is reported with detector-limited switching times of 600 ps. In addition, lasing action along the pump axis in a cavity defined by the end mirrors is observed in a very thin (2.0 μm) CuCl etalon. The lasing transition is unique in that it involves the creation of a virtual excitation of biexcitons which decay to the longitudinal exciton state.