Total Reflection Enhancement in an Incoherent-Gain Prism Coupler towards Optical Switches and Photonic Transistors

摘要

An incoherent-gain prism coupler that can lead to enhanced total reflection is suggested by taking full advantage of pumped electric-dipole allowed transition that leads to gain-assisted negative permittivity. The tunable reflection spectrum of the prism coupler is quite sensitive to frequency detuning (e.g., 10~7 times that in conventional metalsubstrate prism couplers) since the incoherent-gain optical response presented here results from atomic dipole-allowed transition. The present gain-assisted prism coupler, which can exhibit an unusual effect of dispersion-sensitive tunable reflection enhancement, has potential applications in design of new quantum optical and photonic devices, e.g., frequency-sensitive optical switches and photonic transistors.