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Applied Physics Letters

Optical bistability in InSb at room temperature with two-photon excitation

Ajoy Kumar Kar, Jinesh Mathew, Stanley Desmond Smith, Bob Davis, W. Prettl

Published Feb 15, 1983• 55 citations
Publisher

Abstract

We report the observation of optical bistability in an InSb resonator at room temperature. This effect and fringe shifts were caused by nonlinear refraction induced by two-photon absorption of radiation from a single longitudinal mode injection-locked pulsed CO2 laser operating at 9.6–10.6 μm. Intensities as low as 100 kW/cm2 were found to be sufficient to tune the 250-μm-thick cavity through a fringe maximum. From our results we deduce a value of χ(3) of the order of 10−4 esu over the range of intensities investigated.

DOI
10.1063/1.93923

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Optical bistability in InSb at room temperature with two-photon excitation

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IEEE Journal of Quantum Electronics•Sep 1, 1985•25 citations
We report the observation of optical bistability in an InSb resonator at room temperature. This effect and fringe shifts were caused by nonlinear refraction induced by two-photon absorption of radiation from a single longitudinal mode injection-locked pulsed CO2 laser operating at 9.6–10.6 μm. Intensities as low as 100 kW/cm2 were found to be sufficient to tune the 250-μm-thick cavity through a fringe maximum. From our results we deduce a value of χ(3) of the order of 10−4 esu over the range of intensities investigated.
We report the observation of optical bistability in an InSb resonator at room temperature.This effect and fringe shifts were caused by nonlinear refraction induced by two-photon absorption of radiation from a single longitudinal mode injection-locked pulsed CO 2 laser operating at 9.6-10.6flm.Intensities as low as 100 kW /cm 2 were found to be sufficient to tune the 250-flm-thick cavity through a fringe maximum.From our results we deduce a value of X (3) of the order of 10-4 esu over the range of intensities investigated.
We report the first observation of quasi-steady-state optical bistability in an InSb etalon at room temperature as a result of the generation of free carriers through two photon absorption of 10 μm radiation. Nonlinear tuning of the etalon through two free spectral ranges has been achieved, with bistability observed around the two cavity resonances. Switching from a low to high transmission state has been achieved in times less than 10 ns while switching in the opposite direction occurs within 50-100 ns. The experimental results have been successfully fitted to a numerical model of the device.
Bistability in the reflected light from an InSb surface has been observed without the use of a resonance cavity, and is explained by an increasing absorption positive feedback mechanism. Relying on this mechanism, a novel InSb optical switch is demonstrated that uses only the surface reflection and operates at room temperature using a pulsed CO2 laser as the pump beam. The polarity of the switched-out signal, the probe beam, was found to depend on the wavelength of the probe beam in the visible and near-infrared range. This novel spectral dependence was used to demonstrate several optical logic elements.
We report the observation of optical stability for a plane parallel semiconductor crystal which forms a Fabry-Perot interferometer using only the natural reflectivity of its surfaces. Nonlinear transmission is observed for cw laser intensities above ∼ 100 W/cm2 for radiation at 1895 cm−1 near the energy gap of InSb at 5 K. The effect is interpreted in terms of a very large intensity-dependent refractive index giving a 5λ/2 optical thickness change for an intensity of ∼2 kW/cm2. Clear bistability is seen in fifth-order interference, the first such observation above first order in an intrinsic, one-element system, in addition to regions exhibiting signal amplification. The same crystal also shows strong modulation of the transmission of one laser beam induced by a second, with real signal gain, thus demonstrating an ’’optical transistor.’’