Abstract

We investigate the obliquely incident transmittance and reflectivity of a superlattice consisting of N unit cells. Each unit cell is formed of two absorbing nonlinear films. The absorption coefficient, as well as the refractive index, is assumed to depend on the light intensity. Additionally, the saturation of the nonlinearity is taken into account. We use a numerical approach, which we show to be consistent with a recently published analytical model [ A. A. Maradudin, in Optical and Acoustic Waves in Solids—Modern Topics, M. Borissov, ed. ( World Scientific, Singapore, 1983)] in the limit of vanishing absorption and saturation. In detail, we investigate the optical response of a superlattice, illuminated by a plane wave close to the edge of the stop gap, as it relates to the input flux. We show that the combined effects of linear–nonlinear absorption and saturation will considerably affect bistable switching from the low-transmission to the high-transmission state. Eventually just this switching can disappear.

© 1988 Optical Society of America

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