Intrinsic optical bistability for coated spheroidal particles

Abstract

We present results on the nonlinear-optical response for a series of dielectric particles having nanometer sizes that are coated with a metallic shell. Using the freedom of changing particle shapes and coating thicknesses, we optimize the threshold intensity for intrinsic optical bistability. The metallic shell creates an enhanced local field in the nonlinear core. We report threshold intensities for silver-coated CdS as low as 12 W/${\mathrm{cm}}^2$.