We studied optical bistability in Cr:LiSrGaF6 at different rates of pumping power increase R. The characteristic ~R2/3 term was found in the formulas for the rate of switching between stable states and the delay of the switching power.
The transient dynamics and the kinetics of switching between two stable states in Cr:LiSrGaF6 laser crystal, a material with thermally induced intrinsic optical bistability, have been studied. It has been shown that the characteristic switching time τswitch can be shorter than that determined by the heat transfer in a linear regime. In the quasi-steady-state regime, the rate of switching (τswitch-1) in the system studied is proportional to the square root of the area of the steady-state hysteresis loop. The switching time τswitch can be controlled by changing system parameters, such as the temperature of the heat sink, the heat sinking efficiency, the rate of the pumping power increase, etc. When the pumping power is continuously changed at the rate R, the increment in the switching rate Δτswitch-1 is proportional to R2/3.
A very strong nonlinearity in the temperature dependence of the luminescence quantum yield in the Cr:LiSrGaF6 and Cr:LiSrAlF6 laser crystal can lead to a temperature induced intrinsic optical bistability in these materials. The bistability and the hysteresis loop in the dependence of the Cr luminescence intensity and the transmission of the crystal on cw pumping power has been theoretically predicted and experimentally observed. The experimental results are in a good agreement with the theoretical prediction.
Summary form only given. An intrinsic optical bistability can find potential applications in optical logic elements and switches for optical computing, telecommunication, etc. The effect can be predicted in many different systems with various physical mechanisms of nonlinearity. The bistability derived as a consequence of modification of the optical Bloch equations after introducing the local field correction terms, was first experimentally observed in Yb/sup 3+/:Cs/sub 3/ Y/sub 2/Br/sub 9/. We theoretically predict and experimentally demonstrate an intrinsic bistability in luminescence and transmission of Cr doped LiSrGaF/sub 6/ (LiSGaF) and LiSrAlF/sub 6/ (LiSAF) crystals, in which the luminescence quantum yield has a strongly nonlinear dependence on temperature T.