Optical Bistability: Controlling Light With Light

1st Edition - November 4, 1985
Author: Hyatt Gibbs
Language: English
eBook ISBN:
9 7 8 - 0 - 3 2 3 - 1 4 8 6 4 - 1

Optical Bistability: Controlling Light with Light focuses on optical bistability in nonlinear optical systems. Emphasis is on passive (non-laser) systems that exhibit reversible… Read more

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Optical Bistability: Controlling Light with Light focuses on optical bistability in nonlinear optical systems. Emphasis is on passive (non-laser) systems that exhibit reversible bistability with input intensity as the hysteresis variable, along with the physics and the potential applications of such systems for nonlinear optical signal processing. This book consists of seven chapters and begins with a historical overview of optical bistability in lasers and passive systems. The next chapter describes steady-state theories of optical bistability, including the Bonifacio-Lugiato model, as well as the boundary conditions of an optical cavity and the coupled Maxwell-Bloch equations. Both intrinsic and hybrid experiments are then described, along with light-by-light control, pulse reshaping, and external switching. The transient phenomena that arise either from instabilities in the bistable systems themselves or from fluctuations in the number of nonlinear atoms or in the number of intracavity photons are also considered. The final chapter examines the characteristics and fundamental limitations of an ideal device, the prospect of improving devices by identifying giant nonlinearities, and the utilization of the full power of optics by parallel processing. This monograph is intended for new entrants and active workers in the field of optical bistability.

Preface

Chapter 1. Introduction to Optical Bistability

1.1. Definition and Types of optical Bistability

1.2. Optical Logic with Bistable Devices

1.3. Optical Bistability in Lasers

1.4. Early History of Passive Optical Bistability

Chapter 2. Steady-State Models of Optical Bistability

2.1. Mean-field Model of Mixed Absorptive and Dispersive Bistability including in Homogeneous Broadening

2.2. SZOKE ET AL. Model of Absorptive Optical Bistability

2.3. Simple Model of Dispersive Optical Bistability

2.4. Bonifacio-Lugiato Models

2.4.1. Mean-Field Theory of Absorptive Bistability

2.4.2. Analytical Theory with Spatial Variation for Absorptive Optical Bistability in a Ring Cavity

2.4.3. Mixed Absorptive and Dispersive Optical Bistability

2.5. Conditions for Optical Bistability

2.5.1. Homogeneous Nonlinear Absorption and Nonlinear Refractive Index within a Ring Cavity

2.5.2. Standing-Wave Effects

2.5.3. Unsaturable Background Absorption

2.6. Graphical Solutions

2.7. Potential Well Description

2.8. Spectra

2.9. Transverse Effects

2.9.1. Analytical Approaches

2.9.2. Numerical Solutions

2.9.3. Relation to Other Work

2.10 Optical Bistability without External Feedback: Increasing Absorption Optical Bistability

Chapter 3. Intrinsic Optical Bistability Experiments

3.1. Early Searches for Absorptive Optical Bistability

3.2. Sodium Vapor: First Observation of Passive Optical Bistability and Discovery of Nonlinear Index Mechanism.

3.2.1. Experimental Details

3.2.2. Observations of Nonlinear Transmission and Bistability

3.2.3. Nonlinear Refractive Index and Asymmetric Fabry-Perot Scans

3.2.4. Transient, Transverse, and Foreign Gas Effects

3.2.5. Other Na Optical Bistability Experiments

3.3. Ruby: First Solid; Room Temperature; Use of Undriven States

3.4. KERR Media: CS2; Nitrobenzene; Liquid Crystals; Rb

3.5. Thermal Bistability: ZnS, ZnSe, Color Filters, GaAs, Si, Dyes

3.5.1. ZnS and ZnSe Interference Filters

3.5.2. Color Filters, GaAs, Si, Dyes

3.6. GaAs

3.6.1. Bulk GaAs

3.6.2. GaAs-AIGaAs Multiple-Quantum-Well Device

3.7. I n S b

3.8. Other Semiconductors

3.8.1. Te

3.8.2. CdS

3.8.3. SbSI

3.8.4. CuCI

3.8.5. InAs

3.8.6. CdHgTe

3.8.7. GaSe

3.9. Transverse Optical Bistability

3.9.1. Self-Trapping, Self-Lensing, and Self-Bending in Extended Media

3.9.2. Diffraction-Free Encoding in Short Media

3.10 Other Observations and Proposals

3.10.1. Two-Photon Optical Bistability

3.10.2. Tristability, Polarization Effects, and Three-Level Systems

3.10.3. Phase-Conjugation Optical Bistability

3.10.4. Nonlinear Interface Optical Bistability

3.10.5. Guided-Wave Optical Bistability

3.10.6. Mirror-less Optical Bistability

3.10.7. Miscellaneous

Chapter 4. Hybrid Optical Bistability Experiments

4.1. Kastal'skii's Proposal

4.2. Smith-Turner Hybrid Fabry-Perot Bistable Device

4.3. Cavity-less Devices; Student Experiment

4.4. Devices with Waveguide Modulators

4.5. Survey of other Hybrid Experiments

Chapter 5. Optical Switching: Controlling Light with Light

5.1. Transient Nonlinear Fabry-Perot Interferometer

5.2. Pulse Self-Reshaping and Power Limiting

5.3. Control of One Beam by another

5.4. Optical Transistor or Transphasor

5.5. External off and on Switching of a Bistable Optical Device

5.6. Critical Slowing Down

5.7. Phase-Shift Switching

5.7.1. Anomalous Switching and Input-Phase-Shift Switching

5.7.2. Intracavity-Phase-Shift Switching

5.8. Picosecond Gating

Chapter 6. Instabilities: Transient Phenomena with Constant Input

6.1. Regenerative Pulsations by Competing Mechanisms

6.2. Stability Analysis; Self-pulsing Involving Non-resonant Modes

6.3. Ikeda Instabilities: Periodic Oscillations, Period Doubling, and Optical Chaos

6.4. Other Instabilities of Nonlinear cavities

6.5. Fluctuations and Noise

6.5.1. Shot-Noise Fluctuations in a Hybrid Experiment

6.5.2. Theories of Optical Bistability Fluctuations

Chapter 7. Toward Practical Devices

7.1. Desirable Properties; Figures of Merit

7.2. Fundamental-limitations

7.3. Nonlinear Refractive Indices

7.3.1. Comparisons between Materials

7.3.2. Band Filling Nonlinear Refraction (InSb, InAs)

7.3.3. Exciton-Resonant Nonlinear Refraction (GaAs, CdS)

7.3.4. Many-Body Theory of Optical Bistability in Semiconductors

7.3.5. Electron-Hole Plasma Nonlinear Refraction (Hg1-xCdxTe)

7.4. Optical Computing

Appendix A. Differential Gain Without Population Inversion

Appendix B. Fabry-Perot Boundary Conditions

Appendix C. Maxwell-Bloch Equations

Appendix D. Fabry-Perot Cavity Optimization with Linear Absorption and Nonlinear Refractive Index

Appendix E. Instability of Negative-Slope Portion of S-Shaped Curve of IT versus II

Appendix F. Quantum Population Pulsation Approach to Resonance Fluorescence and Optical Bistability Instabilities

F.1. Introduction

F.2. Theory

F.3. Discussion

Appendix G. Fast-Fourier-Transform Solution of Transverse Effects

Appendix H. Critical Exponents in Optical Bistability Transients

Appendix I . Relationship between n2 and x(3)

References

Glossary

Index