Thermal nonlinearity is known to cause bistability in Whispering Gallery Mode (WGM) resonators and to destabilize the red slope of the Lorentzian resonant curve. We demonstrate an optical technique that allows compensation of the thermal effect and forces the resonances to appear linear with both red and blue slopes stable.

We discuss a novel kind of nonlinear coupler with one channel filled with a negative index metamaterial. The opposite directionality of the phase velocity and the energy flow in the negative index metamaterial channel facilitates an effective feedback mechanism that leads to optical bistability and gap soliton formation.

We present a design of a polarization converter between linear, circular, and elliptic accomplished with an on-chip high-Q dielectric microring resonator. Nonlinear polarization switching can be accomplished at modest input intensities because of the high-intensity compression in the ring. We predict an optical bistability effect making the polarization of the transmitted light dependent on its...

We report on sizable optical bistability in the operation of a continuous-wave diode-pumped Yb:LuVO(4) laser, as a result of the resonant reabsorption losses in the laser crystal which increase with the temperature. Significant intensity fluctuations have been observed in a small operational region near the critical point.

We describe the principle of operation of an all-optical flip-flop based on dispersive bistability in a distributed feedback semiconductor optical amplifier. Cross-phase modulation controls the photonic bandgap and Bragg resonances of the amplifier, thereby shifting the hysteresis and switching thresholds to higher or lower powers. We give the details of a simple theoretical model that is used ...

Intrinsic bistability and hysteresis have been observed in the photoluminescence of bulk glass doped with Yb3+ and Tm3+ impurities at room temperature. Multiple instabilities also occur in channel waveguide lasers in this material. Consequently, local field effects exhibit more degrees of freedom than expected and have important implications for compact optical amplifiers and oscillators.

We have observed optical bistability caused by absorption-induced thermal expansion of mirrors forming a Fabry-Perot interferometer. From the resulting anomalous transmission line shapes, absorption coefficients of the mirror coatings as low as 0.2parts in 10(6) (ppm) have been successfully measured.

We predict that nonlinear waveguides which support frozen light associated with a degenerate photonic band edge, where the dispersion relation is locally quartic, exhibit a tunable, all-optical switching response. The thresholds for switching are orders-of-magnitude lower than at regular band edges. By adjusting the input condition, bistability can be eliminated, preventing switching hysteresis.

An all-optical flip-flop, the memory of which is based on dispersive bistability in a single vertical cavity semiconductor optical amplifier, is demonstrated experimentally. Flip-flop control is achieved using two mechanisms: cross-phase modulation to set the flip-flop and cross-gain modulation of the holding beam within a remote SOA to reset it. Optical control signals are sub-milliwatt in pow...

The photo-Hall technique has been used to investigate the properties of the InSb optical absorption band-edge. An accurate theoretical explanation of the linear absorption results is given, together with new data on the nonlinear aspects of the band-tail. A value of 1.1 x 10-18 for a has been calculated by monitoring the carrier generation during bistability.