Optical bistability with low intensity threshold (1.83Â MW/cm2) in SPPs resonator multilayer nanostructure

A low intensity threshold optical bistability with multilayer nanostructure containing Kerr nonlinear medium has been demonstrated. The mechanism of optical bistability is the light-intensity dependent refractive-index change of the Kerr nonlinear medium inside the multilayer nanostructure, that can be treated as a Fabry-Perot etalon. Significant enhancements of the localized field at corresponding transmission peak are observed with SPP modes resonance excitation. To make the field amplitude more focused on the Kerr nonlinear medium films in the structure, the resonance angles can be amended as needed. So the average field amplitude by a factor of ∼16.1 compared to that of incident beam is predicated in the multilayer nanostructure for the wavelength of 1064 nm. Furthermore a very low bistability threshold of 1.83 MW/cm2 is obtained.