Regimes of enhanced optical bistability

Sergei N Bagaev, A. A. Kurbatov, Е. А. Титов

Y. Ron Shen

Roberto Camassa, M. Gregory Forest, Robert E. Knapp

The authors study analytically and numerically the effect of a periodic perturbation in the index of refraction of a nonlinear optical medium. Using a one-dimensional model for monochromatic waves incident on the medium, they find that near resonance between the perturbation and the modulation of the electric field there can be a significant enhancement of optical bistability in the low intensity regime. In particular, they discuss in detail the case of the primary resonance, which is responsible for the most significant effects, and show how one can optimize the bistability curve for the implementation of an optical switch, based on the information provided by the resonance structure.

Nguyen Ba An, Nguyen Trung Dan

Taylor Fryett, Christopher M. Dodson, Arka Majumdar

Weak material nonlinearity at optical frequencies poses a serious hurdle to realizing optical bistability at low optical powers, which is a critical component for digital optical computing. In this paper, we explore the cavity enhancement of the second-order optical nonlinearity in order to determine the feasibility of few photon optical bistability. Starting from a quantum optical formalism of a doubly resonant cavity (required to meet the condition of phase matching), we derive a dynamic classical model of a cavity that is bistable at the fundamental mode. We analyze the optical energy and the switching speed as a function of the cavity quality factors and mode volumes and identify the regime where only ten's of photons are required to perform the switching. An unusual trend in the switching speed is also observed, where the speed monotonically decreases as the cavity linewidth increases. This is ascribed to the increase in the switching gain with increasing cavity linewidth.