TITLE:
Optical Bistability in an Acousto-Optic Tunable Filter (AOTF) Operating with Short Optical Pulses
AUTHORS:
Karlo David Alves Sabóia, Alex Sander Barros Queiroz, Francisco Tiago Lima, Cícero Saraiva Sobrinho, Jose Wally Mendonça Menezes, Antonio Sergio Bezerra Sombra
KEYWORDS:
Bistability; Acousto-Optic Tunable Filter
JOURNAL NAME:
Journal of Electromagnetic Analysis and Applications,
Vol.4 No.3,
March
28,
2012
ABSTRACT: In this paper we report for the first time the presence of bistability in an acoustic-optic tunable filter (AOTF) operating with ultrashort (2 ps) optical light pulses. The results for the study of bistability has shown the dependence of the hysteresis curve with the product of the coupling constant (κ) by the length of the device (ξL) and the conversion power-coupling constant factor (G). The range of bistability varies significantly with both G and with κξL parameters. The variation of κξL directly increases the size of the range of bistability hysteresis while the increase in G causes the bistability to occur at low powers. The phenomenon of optical bistability (OB) is the object of increasing interest due to its possibilities for important device applications. A bistable device is a device with a capability to generate two different outputs for a given input and the physical requirements for this are an intensity-dependence refractive index and an optical feedback mechanism.