Waveguide optical bistable device with distributed reflectors

哲弥 水本, Tetsuya Mizumoto, Y.Ibusuki +2 more

Tetsuya Mizumoto, Yasuhiro Ibusuki, Katsumi Nakatsuhara +1 more

Masahiro Okuda, Kiyoshi Onaka

Bistability of an optical resonator with distributed Bragg-reflectors is analyzed by using the coupled-mode theory. Hysteresis and nonlinear properties are given as a function of the quantities characterizing the Kerr medium (the quadratic electrooptic coefficient n 2 and the length of the Kerr medium l ) and the propagation characteristics of the corrugated waveguide (the coupling coefficient k and the optical loss in the corrugated waveguide Γ). We show that the optical resonator with distributed Bragg-reflectors has a multi-valued transmission characteristic by the Kerr effect. From the numerical calculations, the up-switching and down-switching power intensities of bistable operation are estimated.

Andrew Grieco, Boris A. Slutsky, Dawn T. H. Tan +3 more

We demonstrate optical bistability in a silicon waveguide Fabry-Pérot resonator formed by a pair of distributed Bragg reflectors. In the bistable regime, the output power of the resonator ceases to be uniquely determined by the input power because multiple powers within the cavity satisfy the resonance condition. Pulsating behavior is observed within the resonator output, and is attributed to noise within the experimental setup driving the resonator between the multiple allowed output powers.

Masahiro Okuda, Kiyoshi Onaka

The effect of the bleaching property of a saturable absorber and the optical loss in a corrugated waveguide on bistability is analyzed by using the coupled-mode theory. Hysteresis and nonlinear properties are given as a function of the quantities characterizing the saturable absorber (the absorption coefficient Γ 0 , and the length of saturable absorber l ) and the propagation characteristics of the corrugated waveguide (the coupling coefficient k and the optical loss in waveguide Γ). It is clear, by selecting the optimum values of these parameters., that the saturable optical resonator has a bistable property which is useful as an optical gate, an optical amplifier, and an optical memory in integrated optical circuits.

P. W. E. Smith