Dispersive optical bistability in stratified structures

Abstract

A versatile, plane-wave transfer-matrix formalism is presented, describing the stationary optical response of multilayered structures where any layer may exhibit a Kerr-type nonlinearity of local or diffusive nature. In order to establish the range of validity of this formalism, the results have been compared to exact solutions both for nonlinear interference filters and superlattices. In practical cases, the nonlinear transfer-matrix formalism is always applicable, except for those superlattice structures where the layer thickness is smaller than the material wavelength.