Optical bistable device based on one-dimensional photonic crystal waveguide

Optical bistability occurs when the effects of nonlinear behavior of materials cause hysteresis in the transmission and the reflection of a device. An optical bistable device based on one-dimensional photonic crystal waveguide is designed and fabricated. Doped semiconductor CdSxSe1 − x glass, which has large nonlinear refractive index coefficient and fast nonlinear responding time, is used. The threshold light intensity of the optical bistability is 1.65 × 105 W/cm2 and the optical switching time is 63 ps.