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Journal of the Optical Society of America B

Robust control of switching of localized structures and its dynamics in a single-mirror feedback scheme

Barbara Schäpers, T. Ackemann, Wulfhard K. Lange

Published Apr 1, 2002• 21 citations
Publisher

Abstract

Experimental results of a study of the switching dynamics of bistable localized states in a single-mirror feedback system with sodium vapor as the nonlinear medium are presented. The type of switching (on or off) is determined by the polarization state of the addressing beam, which gives a robust—because it is phase insensitive—way of controlling the direction of switching. Critical and noncritical slowing down are demonstrated.

DOI
10.1364/josab.19.000707

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Experimental results of a study of the switching dynamics of bistable localized states in a single-mirror feedback system with sodium vapor as the nonlinear medium are presented. The type of switching (on or off) is determined by the polarization state of the addressing beam, which gives a robust—because it is phase insensitive—way of controlling the direction of switching. Critical and noncritical slowing down are demonstrated.
It is demonstrated experimentally and theoretically that a light-shift-induced level crossing in an oblique magnetic field results in a nonmonotonous dependency of the transmission of a sodium vapor cell on the input power. If feedback by a single plane mirror is added, bistability of the transmission and of the beam profile (resonatorless transverse optical bistability) is observed. The origin of the bistable behavior and the parameter dependencies is explained by the properties of the homogeneous solution. Numerical simulations with a Gaussian incident beam reproduce well the switching behavior of the beam profile found in the experiment.
The interaction of left- and right-hand circularly polarized narrow-band cw laser beams that copropagate through sodium vapor and are tuned to the homogeneously broadened D1 transition can lead to the mutual extinction of both beams. Such beam switching is caused by an intensity- and polarization-dependent refractive index due to optical pumping even at low intensities. The dynamics of beam switching is investigated experimentally and explained qualitatively by the conventional J = 1/2 to J = 1/2 transition model. The accurate quantitative description, however, is only achieved by an extended model comprising hyperfine ground states in spite of homogeneous line broadening by argon buffer gas, which is larger than the hyperfine splitting.
Orthogonally polarized optical feedback has been proven to act on the frequency of semiconductor lasers. The coupling of this feedback to a nonlinear filter results in bistability for the frequency of the laser output [Phys. Rev. Lett.94, 173902 (2005)]. This phenomenon opens the way to the development of all-optical devices such as a switch between frequency states of the optical emission. For demonstrating this particular application we use an AsGaAl monomode laser emitting around 852 nm, together with a warm atomic cesium vapor as a resonant filter. The output frequency state of the switch is determined by two different frequencies of a control laser, with each control frequency changing the switch frequency in only one direction.
A transverse optical bistability would not occur with a plane-wave input; it is characterized by pronounced changes in transverse profiles, but not in total transmission.1 The systems studied here consist of a single feedback mirror and a nonlinear medium (Na vapor) sufficiently thin that diffraction is negligible during the nonlinear radially dependent phase encoding. With the input focused beyond (before) the Na and the mirror center of curvature on the input (output) side of the Na, self-defocusing (self-focusing) optical bistability is seen--but only when the feedback is nonconcentric, i.e., the feedback beam is displaced off-axis relative to the input beam. If cylindrical lenses are used to form an elongated focus in the Na, bistability is still seen. This suggests that one-transverse-dimension (ID) theories may be adequate to describe the system's steady-state and transient behavior. ID numerical simulations with nonconcentric feedback are under way.
In all-optical switching systems bistable distributed-feedback (DFB) amplifiers are being used experimentally as memory cells and signal regenerators. In this frame a single section DFB amplifier (with one AR coated facet) operating around threshold at 1549 nm is pumped by a similar laser with a carefully controlled frequency detuning. The polarization controlled pump beam is modulated by a Mach-Zehnder switch (2.5 GHz bandwidth) to avoid source frequency chirp. The measurement of a pump reference and of the beam reflected from the amplifier is performed through a fiber directional coupler inserted between the two DFB diodes. Optical bistability has been observed both in transmission and in reflection for a sinewave modulated input in the 1-200 MHz frequency range. The output square wave exhibits up and down switching times lower than 1 ns and about 2 ns, respectively. The latter figure is consistent with the carrier recombination time in InGaAsP active structures, which is the main limit to the recovery time of bistable amplifiers. Work is in progress to investigate this feature in other types of amplifiers (e.g., multisection DFBs and quantum well structures).