Thermally induced optical bistability in PbTe at room temperature

Thermally induced optical bistability by continuous-wave CO₂ laser excitation is obtained for the first time in PbTe. Optical switching of the etalon atT=300K is achieved for input powers of tens of milliwatts. A theoretical analysis of the input-output characteristics is presented, where the temperature dependence of the free carrier absorption has been accounted for.     

Thermally induced optical bistability in a new polymeric blend at room temperature

The transition from the transmission to the reflection regime for an Ar⁺-laser beam propagating in the new polymeric blend PMMA-EVA at a nonlinear interface has been observed. A comparison between the experimental data and a calculation of the input optical intensity at which this transition should occur (1.45×10⁷ W m^–2) is presented using Kaplan's theory. The results suggest the presence of thermally induced optical bistability in PMMA-EVA.     

Thermally induced dispersive optical bistability in silver nanosuspensions produced by pulsed laser ablation method

The thermally induced optical bistability in prepared silver (Ag) nanosuspensions have been studied experimentally, using Fabry–Perot and Mach–Zehnder interferometry methods. Two Ag nanosuspensions of different sizes were produced by different fluences of pulsed laser ablation method in distilled water. The pulsed Nd:YAG laser of 7 ns pulse width, 1064 nm wavelength and different fluences was employed to produce Ag nanosuspensions. Experimental observations were performed by an ultraviolet–visible–near infrared spectrophotometry. Structure and size of prepared Ag nanoparticles were diagnosed using transmission electron microscope images. Fabry–Perot and Mach–Zehnder interferometry methods were used to carry out the optical bistability process in prepared Ag nanosuspensions. In two considered interferometers, the obtained phase shifts of the hysteresis loops based on the optical bistability are inversely proportional to the nonlinear refractive index of samples and thickness of Ag nanosuspensions cells. Results indicate that the induced thermal effect of the optical bistability can be tuned by modifying parameters such as the nonlinear refractive index and applied interferometry methods. Hence, a desirable situation for the thermo-optical effects of the optical bistability can be easily realized in Ag nanosuspensions.     

Plasma induced optical nonlinearities and optical bistability in CdS

The transition from a low density gas of excitons to an electron-hole plasma is connected with strong variations of the optical properties. In this contribution we investigate both the optical nonlinearities produced in CdS by an intense laser beam in the spectral region close to the absorption edge and at the position of the laser itself. In a second part it is shown that the nonlinearities at the photon energy of the incident laser may lead to absorptive and dispersive optical bistability.     

Transients in optical bistability

In this paper we report on both a theoretical model for the transients in optical bistability in a Fabry-Perot cavity and the corresponding experimental results. An analytical calculation permits to predict the shape of the transient curves and the order of magnitude of their time duration in the case of a slow sweep of the length of the cavity. The experiment, which uses the nonlinearity arising from a two-photon transition in rubidium, yields results in good agreement with the theoretical calculation.Work supported by the D.R.E.T.     

Piezooptical optical bistability

A glass fiber piezooptical optical bistability device is reported.Basing on pho-toelastic and strain effects of single-mode fiber,we have realized piezooptical modulation andperformed experiments of optical bistability.     

光栅光学双稳态

本文报道了一种光栅光学双稳态装置.利用改变一对对称光栅间相对位移,实现了对透过光强的周期性调制.将这样的系统作为传输部分,分别用He-Ne激光和普通白光完成了光学双稳实验.实验结果与理论分析相符.     

Long-term stable thermally induced absorptive optical bistability in MBE-grown ZnSe epilayers

MBE-grown ZnSe epilayers released from their GaAs substrates exhibit thermally induced absorptive optical bistability of high contrast ratios and low switching powers in a wide temperature range up to room temperature. For increasing sample thickness or for enhanced reflection realized by inserting the samples into a resonator, counteracting dispersive switching becomes visible. The interplay of both the absorptive and dispersive effects is studied for different samples and varied experimental parameters. Long-term stability of the samples with regard to all switching effects makes them promising candidates for application studies.     

Dynamic fluctuations in optical bistability

We present results on the time correlation function of a system undergoing absorptive optical bistability. We first use the Zwanzig-Mori formalism to calculate time correlation functions both near marginal stability points and in the coexistence region. Near marginal stability the theory predicts large deviations from a single exponential form of the correlation function. The truncated continued fraction expansion is shown to become inapplicable close to the coexistence point. The difficulties are due to the presence of long time scales, viz. the very large mean first passage times between the two metastable steady states. When these scales are important we show that the memory kernel relaxation is no longer faster than that of a field fluctuation. An increase in the size of the system increases the disparity of the time scales and thus exacerbates the problems of the projection operator formalism as used here following reference [14].We next present an ansatz for the correlation function incorporating the four major time scales important near coexistence, the two single branch relaxation times and the two mean first passage times for transitions between the stable states. This form of the correlation function avoids the difficulties cited in connection with the use of the projection operator method.     

Nonsecular terms in optical bistability

We investigate the influence of the nonsecular terms on the optical bistability in a photonic-crystal single-atom laser. The nonsecular terms result in a significant reduction of the bistability threshold. The optical bistability can be controlled by adjusting the parameters of the discontinuity in the photon density of states.     

Recent advances in optical bistability

In this paper, recent advances in optical bistability and gating of semiconductors will be reviewed. Nonlinear mechanisms responsible for switching will be described. The advantages of nonlinear etalons for massive parallelism and current problems in performing such operations will be mentioned.     

Self-pulsing in two-cavity optical bistability

We discuss two serially coupled ring cavities which contain media modelled by an ensemble of homogeneously broadened two-state atoms. This system produces pulsed outputs for appropriate CW inputs and values of the cooperativity parameters in the absorptive regime. In particular, self-pulsing occurs when both stable and unstable steady-state output versus input characteristics are everywhere monotomic with positive slope. An analytic requirement for this self-pulsing is obtained in the absorptive case.     

富勒烯分子的光学双稳性

本文采用非线性法布里-珀罗腔的全光光学方法,在C_(60)/C_(70)薄膜中首次观测到双稳开关现象,其开关时间为10ns.     

Fluctuations in multiphoton optical bistability

We show that in multiphoton lasers nonclassical effects are absent, whereas in multiphoton optical bistability the maximum reduction of fluctuations is by a factor of four.     

Study of thermally induced optical bistability in a twisted nematic liquid crystal

We report the observation and study of optical bistability in the power transmitted by a twisted nematic liquid crystal bounded by crossed dichroic polarizers. A detailed study of the dependence of the phenomenon on the sample initial temperature has been performed. The effect is a good test for a simple theoretical model which describes the isotropic droplet formation in a nematic sample under laser illumination. A good agreement is found between experimental results and theoretical predictions. Applications of the effect to realize temperature sensors are envisaged.     

10.784μm无镜斯塔克效应光学双稳性

利用同位素C~(13)O_2~(16)激光器R(18)支线与NH_3分子(as)_Q(6,6)跃迁间的相互作用,观察到了斯塔克效应光学双稳性和光学限幅,分析了含有多普勒加宽的稳态理论,实验结果与理论分析结论一致.     

Switching times in absorptive optical bistability

We give analytic expressions for the up-switching and the down-switching times of an optical bistable device in the limit of large C. In the case of up-switching the jump time is proportional to the atomic relaxation time. In the case of down-switching, the jump time is proportional to the cavity relaxation time. No assumption on the relative magnitude of the cavity and the atomic relaxation times is introduced.