Collective effects, nonlinear response, and critical switching intensity in densely doped composite materials

Yan Ling Xue; Geoffrey B. Smith; Anthony T. Baker

doi:10.1117/12.252002

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20 September 1996 Collective effects, nonlinear response, and critical switching intensity in densely doped composite materials

Yan Ling Xue, Geoffrey B. Smith, Anthony T. Baker

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Proceedings Volume 2893, Fiber Optic Components and Optical Communication; (1996) https://doi.org/10.1117/12.252002
Event: Photonics China '96, 1996, Beijing, China

Abstract

We have performed a study of the population dynamics in a composite, in which the active-medium is densely doped, by considering the near dipole-dipole interaction between nearest neighboring active particles. A model is presented to describe the particle-particle collective effects on the response time of the nonlinear refractive index in such a densely doped composite to an input optical signal. The results show that collective effects greatly enhance the magnitude of the nonlinear refractive index without changing the transient response time. This is expected to have potential in lowering the critical switching intensity of bistable switching devices without sacrificing switching speed. We examined two typical composites: rare-earth densely doped silica and perylimide-dye densely doped polymer/glass composites. It is found that perylimide-dye densely doped polymer/glass composite is more suitable for the switching application due to its large nonlinear refractive index and fast response time at relatively low optical intensity.

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Yan Ling Xue, Geoffrey B. Smith, and Anthony T. Baker "Collective effects, nonlinear response, and critical switching intensity in densely doped composite materials", Proc. SPIE 2893, Fiber Optic Components and Optical Communication, (20 September 1996); https://doi.org/10.1117/12.252002

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