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Applied Physics Letters

Optical bistability at 980 nm in a strained InGaAs/GaAs multiple quantum well microcavity with resonant periodic nonlinearity

D. Pellat, Rozette Azoulay, G. Leroux, L. Dugrand, Yvan Raffle, Robert Kuszelewicz, J. L. Oudar

Published May 17, 1993• 13 citations
Publisher

Abstract

We report on a novel monolithic all-optical bistable device operating at 980 nm, based on the dispersive optical nonlinearity of strained InGaAs/GaAs quantum wells located at the antinodes of the microcavity optical field. This design maximizes the interaction with the intracavity field and allowed to use only twelve quantum wells of 10 nm thickness. The first observation of all-optical bistability with strained InGaAs/GaAs quantum wells is reported, with a contrast ratio of 7:1 and a threshold intensity of 1 kW/cm2. The operating wavelength offers key advantages such as the substrate transparency and compatibility with vertical cavity surface emitting lasers.

DOI
10.1063/1.109328

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We report on a novel monolithic all-optical bistable device operating at 980 nm, based on the dispersive optical nonlinearity of strained InGaAs/GaAs quantum wells located at the antinodes of the microcavity optical field. This design maximizes the interaction with the intracavity field and allowed to use only twelve quantum wells of 10 nm thickness. The first observation of all-optical bistability with strained InGaAs/GaAs quantum wells is reported, with a contrast ratio of 7:1 and a threshold intensity of 1 kW/cm2. The operating wavelength offers key advantages such as the substrate transparency and compatibility with vertical cavity surface emitting lasers.
Epitaxial methods allow the fabrication of nonlinear interferomethc structures which include the mirrors and the GaAs Multiple Quantum Wells (MQW) nonlinear medium in a single crystal. This results in very compact nonlinear microcavities with typically 5im overall thickness. Optical bistability is observed in these structures at mW optical power. We review our latest experimental results on these structures including the observation of high contrast switching in the reflection mode the direct measurement of dispersive optical nonlinearities in MQWs evidencing their saturation behavior at high intensities. Finally we report external-beam switching experiments which allow to assess the potential of these structures as all-optical gates.
Monolithic bistable microcavities with a GaAs/Al0.3Ga0.7As multiple quantum well active layer and AlAs/Al0.1Ga0.9As Bragg reflectors have been fabricated by metalorganic vapor phase epitaxy. The design of the whole structure is such that a good cavity finesse and a high contrast in the reflective mode are simultaneously obtained. This results in a bistability power threshold of less than 3 mW at 838 nm and a contrast ratio as high as 30:1. A new method is proposed, which allows to measure the nonlinear refractive index in a quasi-continuous regime, and in the operating conditions for bistability. The nonlinear index is shown to saturate at higher power, which evidences the need of a good cavity finesse for such bistable devices. Memory effect is then demonstrated: the sample can stay in either of its two stable states for more than 1 ms without spontaneously switching, and for input pulses as short as 60 ns. Finally we describe two-beam experiments with a new experimental configuration, also in reflection, which allows to mix the two input beams and extract the output beam with an ideal 100% efficiency.
Abstract An experimental study is made of GaAs/AlGaAs monolithic bistable etalons fabricated by metalorganic vapor‐phase epitaxy. Optical bistability is observed in the reflective mode, with a minimum threshold power of less than 3 mW and a switching contrast as high as 30: 1, with a cavity resonator designed to achieve simultaneously a high finesse and a high reflectivity contrast. The dispersive optical nonlinearity of the multiple quantum well active medium is measured as a function of the intracavity intensity, and a strong saturation behavior is observed. The origin of this saturation and its implication on the design of future devices is discussed briefly.
The gain characteristics of strained layer InGaAs quantum well laser amplifiers grown on GaAs substrates have been characterized using a Ti-sapphire laser in both CW and self-mode- locked configuration. All-optical bistability was achieved in such a device through the nonlinear refractive index that arises as a result of the gain saturation of the diode amplifier at high optical intensities. The Ti-sapphire laser was modified to produce wavelength tunable pulses of the order of 150 fs with a 15 nm spectral bandwidth in order to measure the dynamics of the gain using a time resolved optical pump-probe technique. The gain saturation occurs on the time scale of the pulse width of the laser and the initial recovery is extremely fast. This initial speedy recovery on a time scale of 100 fs is followed by a slower recovery with a time constant of 3 ps followed by a much slower recovery of 500 ps.
The nonlinear saturation of the excitonic absorbtion in a GaAs-InxGa 1-xAs multiple quantum well sample consisting of 80 wells was investigated in the vicinity of the excitonic resonance at 991 nm using a tuneable titanium sapphire laser probe. This characterization yields a saturation intensity s of less than 50 kW/cm and a maximum off-resonance nonlinear refractive index of 6.42 x 10-7 cm2/W. It is shown that this dispersion can lead to practical optically bistable etalons fabricated from these multiple quantum well structures.