10 fs ultrafast all-optical switching in polystyrene nonlinear photonic crystals

An ultrafast all-optical switching with the response time on the order of 10 fs is demonstrated in a three-dimensional opal polystyrene nonlinear photonic crystal by means of precise femtosecond pump-probe technique. The switching is realized by the shift in the photonic band gap under external optical pumping of 8 fs Ti:sapphire pulse laser with a peak pump power of 20.6 GW/cm2. The good performance of optical switching is attributed to the very strong and fast Kerr nonlinear optical response of the polystyrene material.