Bistable Optical Element and Its Applications

Szöke, A.; Daneu, V.; Goldhar, J.; Kurnit, N. A.

doi:10.1063/1.1652866

Cited by 420 publications

(110 citation statements)

References 4 publications

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“…Because of its underlying nature and possible applications in the field of all-optical processing, optical bistability (OB) has been a subject of intense experimental and theoretical research . In early studies the use of a saturable absorber to induce OB was suggested [3][4][5][6][7]. The phenomenon was demonstrated experimentally for a cell of sodium vapor enclosed in a Fabry Perot interferometer and excited by a cw dyelaser [8].…”

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confidence: 99%

Condition for resonant optical bistability

Малышев

2012

Phys. Rev. A

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We address a two-level system in an environment interacting with an electromagnetic field in the dipole approximation. The resonant optical bistability induced by local-field effects is studied by considering the relationship between the population difference and the excitation field. The diversity of various systems is included by accounting for system self-action via the surface part of Green's dyadic in the general form. The bistability condition and the exact solution of the steady-state optical Bloch equations at the absolute bistability threshold are derived analytically. Because of its underlying nature and possible applications in the field of all-optical processing, optical bistability (OB) has been a subject of intense experimental and theoretical research . In early studies the use of a saturable absorber to induce OB was suggested [3][4][5][6][7]. The phenomenon was demonstrated experimentally for a cell of sodium vapor enclosed in a Fabry Perot interferometer and excited by a cw dyelaser [8]. Later it was conjectured that local-field corrections alone could give rise to mirrorless OB [9]. This type of bistability was extensively studied [10][11][12][13][14] and observed experimentally [15].The practical interest in all-optical devices faded to some extent as their solid-state counterparts proved to perform better in terms of switching speed and device density. However, OB and optical hysteresis remain of considerable interest from the fundamental standpoint as a clear manifestation of a nonlinear light-matter interaction. Some new types of bistability mechanisms have been discussed recently [16][17][18][19]. Besides, the question of OB and hysteresis has received renewed attention in connection with novel hybrid zero-dimensional (0D) nanoscopic systems, e.g., artificial molecules comprising a semiconductor quantum dot (SQD) and metal nanoparticles (see and references therein).In this paper we address only mirrorless OB induced by local-field effects on a two-level system (TLS) interacting with an electromagnetic field in the dipole approximation. The local-field correction leads to a self-action of the system, which results in a nonlinear relation between the applied field and the one acting on the system. This type of OB mechanism can be relevant for a large variety of systems: dense 3D assemblies of two-level atoms [9,14], optically dense thin films of TLS [24,25] and films of linear molecular aggregates [26][27][28], hybrid metal-semiconductor systems [20][21][22][23], and a more general case of a TLS in an environment involving dielectric and conducting surfaces, such as a stratified medium, a microcavity, or a nanostructure.OB can occur within a range of internal system parameters and external-field intensities; identifying these ranges is therefore an important problem and its analytical solution is desirable. To the best of the author's knowledge, so far * on leave from A. F. Ioffe Physical-Technical Institute, 194021 St. Petersburg, Russia; a.malyshev@fis.ucm.es. it has been solved exactly ...

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confidence: 99%

Condition for resonant optical bistability

Малышев

2012

Phys. Rev. A

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“…This is observed as a hysteresis cycle in the plot of the output light intensity versus input light intensity. Optical bistability was proposed by [1][2][3] and since then observed in many different systems such as cavity lasers [4][5][6][7], atomic systems [7,8], semiconductors [9][10][11], and microcavity polaritons [12,13]. Bistability is commonly used for device applications [3,[14][15][16], particularly in polariton systems as spin switch and optical memory [17,18], optical transistor [19], laser [20], and logic functions [21].…”

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confidence: 99%

Effect of a noisy driving field on a bistable polariton system

et al. 2015

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International audienceWe report on the effect of noise on the characteristics of the bistable polariton emission system. The present experiment provides a time-resolved access to the polariton emission intensity. We evidence the noise-induced transitions between the two stable states of the bistable polaritons. It is shown that the external noise specifications, intensity and correlation time, can efficiently modify the polariton Kramers time and residence time. We find that there is a threshold noise strength that provokes the collapse of the hysteresis loop. The experimental results are reproduced by numerical simulations using Gross-Pitaevskii equation driven by a stochastic excitation

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“…All-optical arrays as potential memory devices [19] have intrigued physicists since the first observation of optical bistability [17]. (For background material see, for example, [1,9,16].)…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Diffraction effects on diffusive bistable optical arrays and optical memory

Chen

McLaughlin

2000

Physica D: Nonlinear Phenomena

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Bistable responses of Fabry-Pérot cavities and all-optical arrays, in the presence of weak diffraction and strong diffusion, are studied both analytically and numerically. The model is a pair of nonlinear Schrödinger equations coupled through a diffusion equation. The numerical computations are based on a split-step method with three distinct characteristics. This bistable nonlinear system, with strong diffusion and weak diffraction, behaves very differently than dispersive bistability with Kerr nonlinearity. Nevertheless, focusing nonlinearity can improve its response characteristics significantly. For example, it is found that hysteresis loops are much wider when nonlinearity is self-focusing than when nonlinearity is self-defocusing. For self-defocusing nonlinearity, strong diffraction can close a hysteresis loop completely. Because of strong diffusion, refractive index distributions are smoothed versions of intensity distributions. This weakens the nonlinear behavior of the system. By approximating the refractive index by a constant, the model is reduced to a discrete map. This reduction incorporates diffraction into a nonlinear response function, allowing diffractive effects to be studied analytically, and shown to agree well with more extensive numerical simulations. Optical arrays are also studied numerically. Because of weaker diffractive crosstalk and a wider "operation gap" between "on" bits and "off" bits, an array with focusing nonlinearity allows finer packing than with self-defocusing nonlinearity. Using the reduced map, optimal packing densities of optical arrays are estimated.

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Bistable Optical Element and Its Applications

Cited by 420 publications

References 4 publications

Condition for resonant optical bistability

Condition for resonant optical bistability

Effect of a noisy driving field on a bistable polariton system

Diffraction effects on diffusive bistable optical arrays and optical memory

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