Optical bistability at angular incidence in a one-dimensional photonic crystal containing single negative materials

Nonlinear wave propagation is studied theoretically in a one-dimensional photonic band gap structure containing single negative materials. It is found that Kerr nonlinearity is greatly enhanced near the lower edge of a recently explored angular gap for transverse magnetic polarized light. Consequently, optical bistability is achieved at very low values of input intensity in a periodic structure composed of only a few repeating units. The characteristics of optical bistability are affected only slightly with the variation of the incident angle and thickness ratio of the layers. The effect of losses is also found to be relatively insignificant in such a small structure.