Demonstration of optical bistability with a nonlinear prism coupler
- 15 May 1987
- journal article
- Published by AIP Publishing in Journal of Applied Physics
- Vol. 61 (10) , 4744-4748
- https://doi.org/10.1063/1.338811
Abstract
A guided wave is launched through a nonlinear prism coupler whose prism-waveguide gap is filled with a liquid crystal. We observed that the intensity of the excited guided wave exhibits optical bistability when the incident intensity is modulated. This result, which is rather surprising when compared to recent theoretical predictions, is shown to arise from a thermal averaging process in the liquid crystal.This publication has 12 references indexed in Scilit:
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