Optical Switching Phenomena of Kerr Nonlinear Microsphere Due to Near-Field Coupling: Numerical Analysis

Masanobu HARAGUCHI  Toshihiro OKAMOTO  Masuo FUKUI  

Publication
IEICE TRANSACTIONS on Electronics   Vol.E85-C    No.12    pp.2059-2064
Publication Date: 2002/12/01
Online ISSN: 
DOI: 
Print ISSN: 0916-8516
Type of Manuscript: Special Section PAPER (Special Issue on Near-Field Optics and Its Applications)
Category: 
Keyword: 
microsphere,  optical switching,  near-field coupling,  whispering gallery mode,  FDTD,  

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Summary: 
We calculated linear and nonlinear responses of a Kerr nonlinear microsphere sandwiched by two prisms using the excitation of whispering gallery modes due to near-field coupling. As numerical calculations, the finite-difference time-domain method that takes into account the Kerr nonlinear effect was used. We dealt with two types of spheres, i.e., the Kerr-material sphere and the dielectric sphere coated by the Kerr material. It was found that the optical switching phenomena are induced in such spheres. The switching results from the fact that the variations of the refractive index of the nonlinear spheres affect the excitation condition of the whispering gallery modes.