OPTICAL BISTABILITY VIA INCOHERENT PUMPING FIELDS IN SEMICONDUCTOR QUANTUM WELLS

Under the non-resonant condition, we investigated the optical bistability (OB) in a three-level quantum well system inside a unidirectional ring cavity. We find that the incoherent pumping fields and the quantum interference induced by incoherent pumping fields can affect the optical bistability dramatically, which can be used to manipulate efficiently the threshold intensity and the hysteresis loop. These results are achieved by applying the two incoherent pumping fields, so they are very different from the conventional schemes that coherent driving fields are used to control optical bistability. Thus, it may provide some new possibilities for technological applications in optoelectronics and solid-state quantum information science.