All-optical transistor action in photonic bandgap materials

Marian Florescu; Sajeev John

doi:10.1117/12.474416

17 February 2003 All-Optical Transistor Action in Photonic Band Gap Materials

Marian Florescu, Sajeev John

Proceedings Volume 4833, Applications of Photonic Technology 5; (2003) https://doi.org/10.1117/12.474416
Event: Applications of Photonic Technology 5, 2002, Quebec City, Canada

Abstract

We describe all-optical transistor action in photonic band gap materials doped with active atoms. In the presence of a photonic band gap (PBG) material, a coherent laser beam with the frequency slightly detuned from the resonant atomic transition frequency can drive a collection of two-level atoms to an almost totally inverted state, a phenomenon strictly forbidden in ordinary vacuum. By changing the laser field intensity in the neighborhood of a threshold value, it is possible to drive the atomic system through a transition from states in which the atoms populate preferentially the ground level to almost totally inverted states. In this process, the atomic system switches from a passive medium (highly absorptive) to a active medium (highly amplifying). The switching action in a PBG material is not associated with operating near a narrow cavity resonance with conventional trade-off between switching time and switching threshold intensity. Rather it is associated with an abrupt discontinuity in the engineered broad band electromagnetic density of states of the PBG material. We demonstrate all-optical transistor action in PBG materials by analyzing the absorption spectrum of a second probe laser beam and we show that the probe beam experience a substantial differential gain by slight intensity modulations in the control laser field.

Citation Download Citation

Marian Florescu and Sajeev John "All-Optical Transistor Action in Photonic Band Gap Materials", Proc. SPIE 4833, Applications of Photonic Technology 5, (17 February 2003); https://doi.org/10.1117/12.474416

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