Rigorous analysis of bistable memory in silica toroid microcavity

TL;DR

This paper models silica toroid microcavities to demonstrate Kerr bistable memory with low energy use and 500 ns holding time, avoiding thermo-optic effects through optimized coupling.

Contribution

It provides a rigorous coupled mode and finite element analysis showing Kerr bistability in silica microcavities without thermo-optic interference.

Findings

Achieved Kerr bistable memory with 500 ns holding time

Demonstrated low energy consumption for bistability

Successfully avoided thermo-optic effects through optimization

Abstract

We model the nonlinear response of a silica toroid microcavity using coupled mode theory and a finite element method, and successfully obtain Kerr bistable operation that does not suffer from thermo-optic effect by optimizing the fiber-cavity coupling. Our analysis shows it is possible to demonstrate a Kerr bistable memory with a memory holding time of 500 ns at an extremely low energy consumption.