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Annual Meeting Optical Society of America

Intracavity optical bistability in the presence of optically induced absorption

M. Dagenais, Elisa Surkis, Wayne F. Sharfin, H. G. Winful

Published Jan 1, 1985• 0 citations
Publisher

Abstract

Optical bistability in the presence of an optically induced absorption is observed when a thin 13-μm CdS sample is inserted between two mirrors of 90 % reflectivity, in our experiment, a modulated cw laser of ~15-mW peak power is tuned on each side of the free exciton resonance in CdS, and the transmission characteristics are studied. A theoretical calculation including both absorptive and dispersive effects is presented and good agreement is obtained. The absorption coefficient and the index of refraction of the material are connected by Kramers-Kronig relations. Propagation effects are taken into account. Sufficiently long pulses (40 ms) are considered to allow the thermally induced absorption to occur. For detunings above the free exciton resonance, we predict that counterclockwise hysteresis loops will first be observed as the intensity rises; for detunings below the free exciton resonance, only clockwise hysteresis loops are predicted. These predictions were experimentally verified. Power levels of the order of 5–10 mW were sufficient to observe bistability. Cavity effects were also observed.

DOI
10.1364/oam.1985.fg4

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Optical bistability in the presence of an optically induced absorption is observed when a thin 13-μm CdS sample is inserted between two mirrors of 90 % reflectivity, in our experiment, a modulated cw laser of ~15-mW peak power is tuned on each side of the free exciton resonance in CdS, and the transmission characteristics are studied. A theoretical calculation including both absorptive and dispersive effects is presented and good agreement is obtained. The absorption coefficient and the index of refraction of the material are connected by Kramers-Kronig relations. Propagation effects are taken into account. Sufficiently long pulses (40 ms) are considered to allow the thermally induced absorption to occur. For detunings above the free exciton resonance, we predict that counterclockwise hysteresis loops will first be observed as the intensity rises; for detunings below the free exciton resonance, only clockwise hysteresis loops are predicted. These predictions were experimentally verified. Power levels of the order of 5–10 mW were sufficient to observe bistability. Cavity effects were also observed.
Optical bistability (ob) is investigated in CdS in a wide range of intensities. Under pulsed excitation (total pulse width 20 nsec) we find at 5K for ħωexc ≈ 2.550 eV on the flank of the AΓ5 exciton ob of the induced absorption type for incident intensities of Iexc ≈ 1kW/cm2. The nonlinearity is in this case a collision-broadening of the free exciton resonance [1]. The commutation times τ↓ and τ↑ are about 1 nsec and 5 nsec, respectively. For ħωexc ≈ 2.546 eV we observe absorptive ob due to the formation of an electron-hole plasma [2] for Iexc ≈ 1MW/cm2. Single shot experiments show τ↓ ≲ 500 psec being thus to our knowledge one of the shortest commutation times reported for single beam ob so far. The observed hysteresis loops are compared to model calculations with variable pulse lengths. The comparison indicates true ob in our experiments.
Abstract Thermally induced dispersive and absorptive optical bistability of CdS is investigated in a temperature range of 20 K to RT. The influence of the geometry of the crystals, e. g., thickness, surface area size, and resonator structure, on the hysteresis feature and switching behavior is investigated. The quality of the thermal contact between the sample and the heat sink strongly influences switch‐back times. Further, starting temperature, light spot diameter, and pulse intensity are varied in order to find a set of optimization criteria for this kind of optical bistability. Experimental results are in good agreement with model calculations.
We report the observation of an intensity-dependent refractive-index nonlinearity in CdS due to a resonance state where an excitonic molecule is created by induced absorption of light. The refractive indexnas a function of the incident laser photon energyEis measured directly by light refraction in thin crystal prisms. A renormalized dielectric function describes the measuredn(E)spectra well. This strong refractive-index nonlinearity is well suited to produce an optical bistability and to further strengthen the evidence of CdS to be an important material for laser-induced dynamic gratings.
Mirrorless (cavityless) optical bistability (OB), due to temperature-dependent renormalization of the absorption peak of the bound exciton resonance in CdS has been observed and interpreted1 in terms of coupling between the internal field intensity and the temperature in the nonlinear material. It was shown2 that the heat conductivity boundary conditions determine the conditions for bistability of a sample of the material. In fact, we showed earlier that when the boundary conditions at the ends of the sample are such that the heat resistance at the exit end HL = h1/3 where ho is the heat resistance at the entrance face, two hysteresis curves result, one clockwise with increasing input intensity at lower incident fields due to increasing absorption and the other at higher field values due to decreasing absorption which is counter-clockwise, Figures 1a and 1b.