Proceedings of SPIE, the International Society for Optical Engineering/Proceedings of SPIE
Absorptive optical bistability in organic media under the influence of transverse effects
Eliška Jurisová, Jarmila Müllerová
Abstract
The influence of transverse effects on optical bistability in Fabry-Perot cavity filled with saturable absorber was numerically investigated. A simple model of singlet absorption was used on numerically solving the relationships between the input and output light fields. The proposed model corresponds well to organic compounds considered as novel optical materials with third-order optical nonlinearities. The proposed optically bistable systems were demonstrated for two organic dyes of fluorescein and rhodamine 6G dispersed in transparent solid matrices. Their optically bistable behaviour was anticipated considering the homogeneous and Gaussian distribution of light energy in the radial direction. Most notable cases are discussed related to the changes of the Gaussian beam radii, positive feedback conditions in the Fabry-Perot cavity and considering linear and nonlinear absorption parameters of the organic media. The simulation results enabled us to establish numerically thresholds of Fabry-Perot mirror reflectance and Gaussian beam radius for both nonlinear organic materials, above which absorptive optical bistability can occur. The results can be helpful in design of optical switches for all-optical communication networks.