Experimental study and mechanism of bistable all-optical switching based on diarylethene-doped film

• DOI: 10.1016/j.ijleo.2021.166750
• Publication Date: 2021-03-18T04:38:25Z
• Authors: Rujun Liu; Tang Xu; Qiwen Liang; Min Zhao; Shiyu Long
• Keywords: Bistability; Diarylethene; Optical Bistability; Switching time; SIGNAL (programming language)

Abstract A method for constructing bistable all-optical switching based on the changes in the photoinduced-absorption characteristics of diarylethene-doped organic films is proposed. A doped organic film sample (10 wt.% doping concentration) was prepared by doping cis-1,2-dicyano-1,2-bis(2,4,5-trimethyl-3-thienyl)ethene diarylethene into polymethyl methacrylate using a 375-nm continuous wave (CW) laser (40 mW) and 532-nm laser (CW, 5 mW) as the pump beam and a 632.8-nm laser (CW, 3 μW) as the probe beam. The experimental results of the bistable all-optical switching effect of the thin-film sample were obtained. The modulation depth M of the switching signal was 8.2 %, the rise time tr of the switching was approximately 36 s, and the falling time tf was approximately 47 s. The influence of the change in the pump beam power on the switching signal was studied experimentally. Based on the photochromic two-level system, a theoretical model of the bistable all-optical switching signal changing with time was established, the mechanism of bistable all-optical switching was clarified, and the experimental results were analyzed. The nonlinear fitting results show that the experimental data are in good agreement with the theoretical model. This bistable all-optical switching is simple and easy to implement, and it has potential application value as a low-speed bistable all-optical switching method.