Frequency selective bistable switching in metamaterial based photonic bandgap medium

We present frequency selective bistable response at the defect mode of the zero-n¯ bandgap of a photonic bandgap (PBG) material made of negative and positive index media. The nonlinear (Kerr) layer acts as the defect layer in the periodic PBG material. Incorporating metamaterial based electromagnetically induced transparency (EIT) like resonance in the positive layer leads to unprecedented line narrowing of the defect mode which in turn facilitates narrow frequency selective bistable operation, wherein all the bistable characteristics can be effectively engineered. Thresholding the output intensity selects the narrow band of frequencies that exhibit bistability.