Optical bistability of a layered semiconductor in the exciton absorption region

The effect of specific features of the exciton and phonon spectra of layered semiconductors on the conditions of realization of optical bistability in the exciton absorption region has been theoretically investigated by the Green’s function method. By the example of the 2H polytype of PbI₂, it is shown that effective exciton scattering from low-energy bending-wave vibrations leads to a blue shift of the frequency range of bistability realization and its narrowing; expansion of the temperature range of bistability observation; and a shift of the hysteresis loop to higher intensities, accompanied by a decrease in its height and width. The possibility of observing polarization optical bistability, which is related to the dependence of the exciton energy spectrum on the propagation direction of a light wave in a crystal, is also substantiated.