Elsevier

Optics Communications

Volume 64, Issue 5, 1 December 1987, Pages 474-480
Optics Communications

Transient response of an electrically addressable nonlinear bistable optical device

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Abstract

A study has been made of the transient response of a Fabry-Perot cavity exhibiting bistability of the optical output with applied voltage. In this system the electro-optic and optical nonlinear effects act cooperatively to produce the switch, and the transient response was shown to have characteristics associated with both mechanisms. The switch was found to be composed of three distinct regions, a purely electro-optic part, followed by a slow change in the cavity intensity brought about by the electro-optic and nonlinear effects, with a final fast switch up to the high transmission state. The relative magnitude of the time duration of regions 1 and 2 was found to be dependent upon the applied voltage, initial dc biasing and optical input power. In particular, critical slowing down was evident in region 2 of the switch for values of applied voltage close to the critical value. In this case region 2 was the dominant part of the switching time. Overdriving the system resulted in the time duration of region 2 decreasing and region 1 becoming more dominant. Qualitative agreement was achieved between the experimental results and theoretical predictions of the transient response of a cavity undergoing a slow change in some external parameter.

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