Low-Threshold Optical Bistability in the Graphene-Oxide Integrated Asymmetric Nanocavity at Visible Light Frequencies

Abstract

Here, we propose an optical bistable device structure with a few layers of graphene oxide integrated in the metal-dielectric-metal based asymmetric nanocavity. Through the light confinement in the nanocavity, the third order nonlinear absorption of graphene oxide can be significantly enhanced, which experimentally delivers low-threshold optical bistability at the visible wavelength of 532 nm with only 267 KW/cm2 intensity. In addition, the switching threshold can be further reduced via increasing the graphene oxide thickness, hence paving a new way for achieving tunable optical bistable devices at visible light frequencies.