OPTICAL BISTABILITY OF SEMICONDUCTOR MICROCAVITIES IN THE STRONG-COUPLING REGIME

We propose a mechanism for achieving optical bistability in semiconduc tor heterostructures. In contrast to the well-known refractive shift o f the Fabry-Perot mode in macroscopic resonators, we consider the blea ching of the exciton Rabi splitting in strong-coupling microcavities a nd prove that this nonlinear process leads to an optically bistable be havior. Through a model based on the transfer-matrix formalism, we pre dict the dependence of this effect on specific material parameters and on the nature of the cavity. Numerical calculations are carried out f or quantum well embedded cavities and the possibility of room-temperat ure bistable operation is also discussed.