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Journal of the Optical Society of America B

Ultrafast thermal refractive nonlinearities in bistable interference filters

Brian S. Wherrett, A. K. Darzi, Yuk Tak Chow, Brendan T. McGuckin, Eric W. Van Stryland

Published Feb 1, 1990• 17 citations
Publisher

Abstract

A novel, angularly resolved excite-probe technique is used to discriminate ultrafast refractive and absorptive nonlinearities in interference filters and to determine the sign of the nonlinearity. The results explain observations of nanosecond switch-on and switch-off of optical bistability in ZnSe-based filters.
DOI
10.1364/josab.7.000215

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The switching dynamics of thermally induced optical bistability in ZnSe nonlinear interference filters is investigated experimentally and theoretically. The device, maintained on its low transmission level by a cw argon laser beam, is switched on its high transmission level by an external light pulse. Either a very fast switching or an important slowing down are obtained when the holding cw intensity or the switching pulse energy are well chosen. This variation of the switching times is analyzed theoretically and observed experimentally.
Refractive changes in semiconductors used in optical bistability are induced as a result of excitations generated by intense light levels. To date such excitations have been either electronic (carriers excited to higher energy states) as in InSb or thermal as in ZnSe. Usually such refractive index changes are small and it is necessary to introduce some form of optical feedback in order to obtain a useful change in the output signal. Various configurations which provide optical feedback are examined and the optimisation for low switching power levels is addressed.
Two-photon optical bistability in commercial thin-film interference filters with ZnS and ZnSe spacers is observed with switching times ≳ 200 μs. The accompanying drifting of the bistability loop in time and laser-induced "damage" indicate a thermal mechanism. The problem of water vapor absorption in such filters must be addressed before the inherent potential and advantages of these devices in two-dimensional image processing applications can be realized. Trans- verse effects in GaAs superlattice etalons are observed which cannot be explained on the basis of a plane-wave analysis. The optical nonlinearity in GaAs and diffraction combine to produce drastic effects on the measured beam profiles and bistable loops, due to an intensity-dependent virtual focus. Lastly, the first observation of optical bistability due to a biexcitonic nonlinearity in CuCl etalons is reported with detector-limited switching times of 600 ps. In addition, lasing action along the pump axis in a cavity defined by the end mirrors is observed in a very thin (2.0 μm) CuCl etalon. The lasing transition is unique in that it involves the creation of a virtual excitation of biexcitons which decay to the longitudinal exciton state.