Optical bistability with surface polaritons in layered structures containing left-handed metallic magnetic composites

摘要

We present the exact results on optical bistability (including angular and frequency bistabilities) with surface polaritons in layered structures containing left-handed metallic magnetic composite (MMC). The bistable behaviors of the reflected field are revealed for the Kretschmann and Sarid geometries, respectively. The results show that the properties of the angular and frequency bistabilities are quite similar, namely, the optical bistability with the surface polaritons can occur only when the angle or frequency detun-ings and the substrate's nonlinear coefficient have the same sign. For the Kretschmann geometry, the surface polaritons can exist in the pass band due to the negative refraction effect. In the Sarid geometry, the excitation of the long-range surface polaritons in the stop band results in a lower optical bistability threshold compared with the Kretschmann geometry. The above conclusions are valid only for the frequency range where the MMC is left-handed.