Abstract

It has been demonstrated that thin CdS crystal platelets at room temperature may exhibit all-optical bistability under illumination with the 514nm line of an Ar⁺-laser¹. In this case the local heating of the sample leads to induced absorption optical bistability. In the present paper we evaporate metallic contacts on CdS crystals and apply an external bias voltage. The carriers created by the incoming light lead to a photo-current which in turn increases the temperature of the sample by electrical power via Joule's heat and thereby changes the optical properties ²,³.

© 1988 Optical Society of America