Study of Optical Bistability in Coupled Microdisks

ORAL

Abstract

Semiconductor microcavities offer unique means of controlling light-matter interactions in confined geometries, resulting in a wide range of applications in optical communications. We report bi-stable lasing in coupled GaAs microdisks with quantum wells and interface-fluctuation quantum dots in the active region. The inter-disk coupling results in mode-splitting, with the higher energy resonance persistently achieving higher mode Q ($\sim $ 4000). The bi-stability manifests in the form of hysteresis in the intensity of the coupled modes on non-uniform excitation and can be attributed to saturable absorption. This property in the lasing characteristics of coupled cavities gives us a control on the gain modulation and mode-switching and would be useful for applications in optical memories and computing, and in next generation of low-threshold optoelectronic devices.

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Authors

  • S.N. Ghosh

    School of Natural Sciences, University of California, Merced, CA 95344, USA, School of Natural Sciences, University of California, Merced, CA 95344, School of Natural Sciences, University of California, Merced, CA 95343

  • Y.K. Verma

    School of Natural Sciences, University of California, Merced, CA 95344, School of Natural Sciences, University of California, Merced, CA 95343

  • B.B. Buckley

    Department of Physics, University of California, Santa Barbara, California 93106, USA

  • X. Li

    The Pennsylvania State University, Materials Research Institute, Penn State University, University Park, Pennsylvania 16802, USA

  • N. Samarth

    Materials Research Institute, Penn State University, University Park, Pennsylvania 16802, USA

  • D.D. Awschalom

    University of California, Santa Barbara, University of California Santa Barbara, UCSB, Dept. of Physics, University of California, Santa Barbara CA 93106, Department of Physics, University of California, Santa Barbara, California 93106, USA, Center for Spintronics and Quantum Computation, University of California, Santa Barbara, CA 93106, Center for Spintronics and Quantum Computation, University of California, Santa Barbara, 93106, Center for Spintronics and Quantum Computation, University of California, Santa Barbara, California

  • S. Ghosh

    School of Natural Sciences, University of California, Merced, CA 95344, USA, School of Natural Sciences, University of California, Merced, CA 95343