Optical bistable switching in pyran dye-doped polymers

Abstract

In the present frame of work, optical bistability using a Fabry–Perot (FP) cavity containing 4-dicyanomethylene-2-methyl-6-p-dimethylaminostyryl-4H-pyran (DCM) dye entrapped in poly-methylmethacrylate (PMMA) matrix is experimentally investigated. Optical nonlinear behavior of solid-state samples is studied using a single-mode Q-switched nanosecond Nd:YAG laser operating at 532 nm. Various optical nonlinear parameters such as nonlinear refractive index (n2) and third-order susceptibility (χ3) of the material are numerically estimated from bistability loops. The origin of optically bistable behavior is attributed to photoisomerization-assisted nonlinear refraction phenomenon. It is observed that nonlinear refraction dominates over nonlinear absorption in giving rise to the optical bistability. The study shows that DCM dye entrapped in solid-state matrices are promising candidate for polymer-based optical switches, data processing, and communication systems.

Fabrication of chromophore molecule-linked azo polymer as waveguide material of polymeric thermo-optic digital optical switch

“…[1][2][3][4][5] Optical waveguide devices [6][7][8] have attracted a lot of research interest recently, not only because of their small device sizes, but also because of the possibility of achieving recon¯gurable functionality as well as large scale integration. Purnima and Mohan reported 9 the optical switching on the basis of optical bistability phenomenon with the change in input laser intensity. The nonlinear refraction coe±cient (n 2 Þ of order of 10 À9 cm 2 /W and third-order susceptibility ( 3 Þ of order of 10 À15 m 2 /V 2 could con¯rm the occurrence of strong third-order optical nonlinearity in dye-doped polymers.…”