Abstract
Optical bistable devices containing GaAs/AlGaAs multiple quantum well (MQW) structures have shown great potential for performing fast low-power optical switching at room temperature.1 The presence of a much stronger exciton absorption feature in the MQW structures compared to bulk GaAs suggests far superior performance in the former. We report the observation of room-temperature bistability in bulk GaAs with input power <10 mW and intensities of a few kW/cm2. The intensities are consistent with the data of Miller et al.2 which show a saturation intensity of nearly 4 kW/cm2 in a MQW sample with a detuning of less than a halfwidth from the peak of the exciton resonance. Our detunings are always several halfwidths.
© 1984 Optical Society of America
PDF ArticleMore Like This
H. M. Gibbs, S. S. Tamg, J. L. Jewell, D. A. Weinberger, K. Tai, A. C. Gossard, S. L. McCall, A. Passner, and W. Wiegmann
FL6 Conference on Lasers and Electro-Optics (CLEO:S&I) 1982
B. Acklin, C. Bagnoud, and M.A. Dupertuis
WE13 Photonic Switching (PS) 1991
W. H. Knox, R. L. Fork, M. C. Downer, D. A. B. Miller, D. S. Chemla, C. V. Shank, A. C. Gossard, and W. Wiegmann
PD4 International Conference on Ultrafast Phenomena (UP) 1984