Mirrorless optical bistability in a semiconductor-doped-glass plate as a result of oblique incidence.

A procedure to obtain optical bistability in a third-order nonlinear film (or parallel plate) of low refractive index without any external mirrors is investigated both theoretically and experimentally. If an s-polarized light is incident obliquely at a large angle of incidence on the film, the generation of optical bistability can be expected because of the resulting increase in the reflectivity at the surfaces. Arigorous analysis of the stationary transmission characteristics of the nonlinear film is done for both positive and negative nonlinear coefficients with a plane-wave model. In the experimental demonstration, a CdS(x)Se(1-x)doped glass (Hoya Y-52) plate and a cw Ar(+) laser are used as the nonlinear material and the light source, respectively. It is shown that three operations of optical bistability, optical limiting, and differential gain can be easily obtained through adjustment of the angle of incidence as an initial detuning. The measured nonlinearity is thermal, and the magnitude and sign of the nonlinear refractive index are determined.