Optical multistability in nonlinear superlattices with very thin layers

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Abstract
We consider the theory of transmission of electromagnetic radiation through a superlattice of finite length, in which the size of the unit cell is small compared to an optical wavelength. One film in each unit cell is assumed to exhibit an optical nonlinearity of Kerr form. We show that a slow spatial modulation of the thickness of the layers leads to a structure with a low threshold for optical bistability.