Optical bistability from a thermodynamic phase transition in vanadium dioxide
R. S. Rana, F. A. Chudnovskiǐ, David D. Nolte
We demonstrate cw optical bistability at 1.06 μm using the large thermo-optical nonlinearity from the metal-semiconductor phase transition in a thin-film interference filter of vanadium dioxide. Highly stable and reproducible operation has been obtained. By biasing at the transition point, an all-optical external switching between the semiconducting and the metallic states has been demonstrated, with a contrast ratio of 15:1. The effective nonlinear index coefficient is n2 ≈ 1.6 cm2/W with a switching energy density of 135 pJ/μm2 and a speed of 15 ms. The tunability of the material properties of vanadium dioxide provides a means to make devices with a wide range of switching powers and speeds.
Optics Letters•Oct 1, 1992•21 citations