Analysis of optical Kerr bistable memory in add-drop WGM cavities

W.L. Zhang, S. F. Yu

Eduardo F. Mateo, Jesús Liñares

Wataru Yoshiki, Takasumi Tanabe

we demonstrate that it is possible to obtain Kerr bistable memory in a whispering-gallery-mode cavity with an add-drop system but it is impossible with a side-coupled system when the thermo-optic effect is present.

F. A. Hopf, Pierre Meystre

Wataru Yoshiki, Takasumi Tanabe

We numerically studied the required conditions for achieving a memory operation based on Kerr bistability in the presence of the thermo-optic effect in silicon nitride microring cavity systems. By comparing a side-coupled system and an add-drop system, we found that the latter is needed to realize obtain Kerr bistable operation. In addition, we show the coupling coefficient range in which the memory operation does not suffer from the thermo-optic effect.

Michael Pöllinger, Arno Rauschenbeutel

We present experimental results on nonlinear, ultra-low power photonics applications based on a silica whispering-gallery-mode microresonator. Our bottle microresonator combines an ultrahigh quality factor of Q > 10(8) with a small mode volume V. The resulting Q(2)/V-ratio is among the highest realized for optical microresonators and allows us to observe bistable behavior at very low powers. We report single-wavelength all-optical switching via the Kerr effect at a record-low threshold of 50 microW. Moreover, an advantageous mode geometry enables the coupling of two tapered fiber waveguides to a bottle mode in an add-drop configuration. This allows us to route a CW optical signal between both fiber outputs with high efficiency by varying its power level. Finally, we demonstrate that the same set-up can also be operated as an optical memory.