Optical bistability and multistability in one-dimensional photonic band gap structures

We study optical bistability and multistability in multilayer coupled-cavity thin film structures comprised of high-index and low-index materials. The reduction of the bistable threshold and necessary index change are studied as functions of structural parameters by explicitly mapping the evolution of transmission and phase. We find that the coupled-cavity structure has no clear advantage over single-cavity structures for bistable operation. However, there is an advantage in using coupled-cavity structures for multistability in that the threshold for multistability can be reduced.