Abstract
We have identified photothermal displacement as a mechanism for optical bistability (OB) in prism coupling into absorbing planar waveguides: heating by the absorbed incoupled power causes a buckling of the waveguide, a reduction in air-gap width, and thus an increase in incoupling efficiency and a positive feedback. We developed a theory of this OB that qualitatively agrees well with experimental results obtained by coupling argon-laser light into indium–tin oxide layers as strongly absorbing waveguides. This new OB is quite different from dispersive OB in prism or grating couplers caused by a power-dependent effective guide index.
© 1987 Optical Society of America
Full Article | PDF ArticleMore Like This
V. Briguet, P. Pirani, and W. Lukosz
Opt. Lett. 12(7) 525-527 (1987)
P. Vincent, H. Akhouayri, and M. Nevière
J. Opt. Soc. Am. B 8(5) 1149-1156 (1991)
Cameron Horvath, Daniel Bachman, Rob Indoe, and Vien Van
Opt. Lett. 38(23) 5036-5039 (2013)