Optical bistability in reflective fiber gratings

Optical bistability in a nonlinearly reflective fiber grating through the mode coupling between the LP/sub 01/ and counter propagation LP/sub 02/ modes (i,e., the reflective LP/sub 01//spl rlhar2/LP/sub 02/ mode converter) is investigated by using the coupled-mode theory. Both the transmissive and the reflective properties of this nonlinear device are analyzed, which show that the output-versus-input relation exhibits the optical bistability. The switching power and the bistable hysteresis performances are also discussed. In addition, the comparison between the nonlinearly reflective mode converter (LP/sub 01//spl rlhar2/LP/sub 02/) and the nonlinear fiber Bragg grating reflector (i,e., the LP/sub 01/ and counter-propagation LP/sub 01/ modes) is also presented. It is shown that the former has much lower switching power than the latter.<
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