# Thermal bistability through coupled photonic resonances

## TL;DR

This paper proposes a method to achieve thermal bistability using coupled optical resonances, enabling potential applications in thermal memory devices with fast transition times.

## Contribution

It introduces a novel scheme for thermal bistability leveraging temperature-dependent optical resonances in passive systems.

## Key findings

- Demonstrates thermal bistability in Si ring resonators and GaAs thin films.
- Shows potential for thermal memory devices with transition times under hundreds of milliseconds.
- Provides a theoretical framework for coupling resonances to control heat exchange.

## Abstract

We present a scheme for achieving thermal bistability based on the selective coupling of three optical resonances. This approach requires one of the resonant frequencies to be temperature dependent, which can occur in materials exhibiting strong thermo-optic effects. For illustration, we explore thermal bistability in two different passive systems, involving either a periodic array of Si ring resonators or parallel GaAs thin films separated by vacuum and exchanging heat in the near field. Such a scheme could prove useful for thermal memory devices operating with transition times $\lesssim$ hundreds of milliseconds.