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Journal of the Optical Society of America B

Diffusion and diffraction in dispersive optical bistability

W. J. Firth, Ewan M. Wright, Ian Galbraith

Published Jun 1, 1985• 78 citations
Publisher

Abstract

We present some numerical calculations on the effect of diffusion and diffraction on the switching characteristics of bistable optical étalons, together with an approximate analytic model demonstrating the major features and a discussion of switching waves in such systems. A diffusion length of one third of the input-beam spot size gives large hysteresis, whereas diffraction alone gives no hysteresis in first order.

DOI
10.1364/josab.2.001005

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Journal of Applied Physics•Mar 15, 1990•11 citations
We present some numerical calculations on the effect of diffusion and diffraction on the switching characteristics of bistable optical étalons, together with an approximate analytic model demonstrating the major features and a discussion of switching waves in such systems. A diffusion length of one third of the input-beam spot size gives large hysteresis, whereas diffraction alone gives no hysteresis in first order.
There is an increasing interest in all-epitaxial Fabry-Perot etalons for optical bistability1,2 and optical logic gates.3 To model these devices theoretically, the wave equation, carrier diffusion equation, and heat conduction equation must be solved self-consistently for the layered structure. To investigate the effects of small spot sizes, the wave equation must include diffraction, whereas for the heat conduction equation both longitudinal (perpendicular to the layers) as well as transverse (parallel to the layers) heat conduction must be taken into account.
The dependence of switching power upon input beam spot radius for an optically bistable InSb étalon has been measured. The results show that the irradiance required for switching increases as the spot radius is reduced. There is no evidence of any lower limit to the switching power, even for spot radii much less than the ambipolar diffusion length. Studies of the transmitted beam intensity profile in the near-field demonstrate the role of diffusion in our observations. The implications of our results for digital optical processing are briefly discussed.
For reasons of speed and economy, applications of dispersive optical bistability are likely to concentrate on solid-state devices of small volume. In this paper we will discuss the modelling and optimisation of such devices, particularly in relation to possible pixel size and spatial resolution. Diffusion (1,2), rather than diffraction (3), is the dominant transverse coupling mechanism in the two current solid-state systems (InSb etalon (4) and ZnSe-spaced interference filter (5)), capable of cw hold and optical address, but we will argue that in an optimised device diffraction and diffusion will be equally important.