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Topical Meeting on Optical Bistability (OB)

Light - Induced - Desorption: A New Mechanism for Bistability In Integrated Optical Devices

W. Lukosz, V. Briguet

Published Jan 1, 1985• 0 citations
Publisher

Abstract

We have demonstrated a new mechanism for bistability in integrated optics, viz., light-induced-desorption of molecules from the waveguide surface by which the effective guide index N is changed. Bistability occurs if the desorption rate depends linearly on the incoupled power P' in an input coupler device (see Fig.1), and on the intracavity power in an IO Fabry Perot or ring resonator. This follows theoretically from an analysis analogous to that of the bistable radiation pressure driven waveguide pendulum.1

DOI
10.1364/obi.1985.wa4

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Proceedings of SPIE, the International Society for Optical Engineering/Proceedings of SPIE•Dec 22, 1989•2 citations
We have demonstrated a new mechanism for bistability in integrated optics, viz., light-induced-desorption of molecules from the waveguide surface by which the effective guide index N is changed. Bistability occurs if the desorption rate depends linearly on the incoupled power P' in an input coupler device (see Fig.1), and on the intracavity power in an IO Fabry Perot or ring resonator. This follows theoretically from an analysis analogous to that of the bistable radiation pressure driven waveguide pendulum.1
We have identified photothermal displacement as a mechanism for optical bistability (OB) in prism coupling into absorbing planar waveguides: heating by the absorbed incoupled power causes a buckling of the waveguide, a reduction in air-gap width, and thus an increase in incoupling efficiency and a positive feedback. We developed a theory of this OB that qualitatively agrees well with experimental results obtained by coupling argon-laser light into indium-tin oxide layers as strongly absorbing waveguides. This new OB is quite different from dispersive OB in prism or grating couplers caused by a power-dependent effective guide index.
We demonstrate optically bistable (light switching light) operation in a room-temperature InGaAsP Fabry-Perot amplifier. The amplifier is an InGaAsP/InP laser structure biased at ~95% of its lasing threshold. It is switched with <3 μW of optical power provided by the mechanically chopped output of a quasi-single-mode InGaAsP/InP laser. The experimental apparatus is depicted in Fig, 1. A change in the refractive Index in the amplifier of only 5 × 10−4 is sufficient to cause switching. Input and output pulses from the nonlinear amplifier are shown in Fig. 2 when the source frequency is initially detuned by 14 GHz from the closest Fabry-Perot mode of the amplifier. Smaller switching powers are required at lesser detunings. The physical mechanism of the intensity-dependent change of the refractive index is thought to be the change in carrier density resulting from stimulated recombination of free carriers.
We demonstrate, for the first time to our knowledge, optical bistability on a highly integrated silicon device, using a 5-microm-radius ring resonator. The strong light-confinement nature of the resonator induces nonlinear optical response with low pump power. We show that the optical bistability allows all-optical functionalities, such as switching and memory with microsecond time response and a modulation depth of 10 dB, driven by pump power as low as 45 microW. Silicon optical bistability relies on a fast thermal nonlinear optical effect presenting a 500-kHz modulation bandwidth.
In order to study optical bistability in a non-linear distributed feedback structure (NLDFB), we have generalized previous work. A mono-mode rectangular waveguide is chosen as the basic configuration for the device, although other guides could be considered. The grating, providing the passive feedback mechanism, has a geometry that can be arbitrarily chosen. Linear absorption is taken into account and the non-linearity is taken to be of the Kerr type. The effect of these three perturbations is treated using the Coupled Mode Theory and the Slowly Varying Envelope Approximation, including the radiation modes. Expressions for the coupling constants due to the three fundamental perturbations are derived and we show that new terms arise due to the interplay between the latter. Our model shows that an extra term, causing a shift of the Braggfrequency occurs in the equations. The analytical expressions are integrated numerically with the proper boundary conditions. Overall reflection and transmission properties of the device are displayed as a function of the intensity, the period of the grating, its length and several other device parameters.