Optical bistability and critical slowing in the amorphous semiconductor GeS2
Lyubin V. M., Tikhomirov V. K.
An optical bistability has been observed in monolithic glassy semiconductors of the Ge-S system during subband excitation (hv<Eg). The bistability is accompanied by an abrupt change in the refractive index. The process by which the transmission switches in the region of the hysteresis loop exhibits a critical slowing with a time scale ~ 1-10 s. The effect is attributed to a photoinduced cooperative interaction of "native defects" of the amorphous semiconductor, which results in an abrupt structural change in the material.
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![](/ps/1268/article_19179_800_head.png "An optical bistability has been observed in monolithic glassy semiconductors of the Ge-S system during subband excitation <i>(hv<E<sub>g</sub>). </i>The bistability is accompanied by an abrupt change in the refractive index. The process by which the transmission switches in the region of the hysteresis loop exhibits a critical slowing with a time scale ~ 1-10 s. The effect is attributed to a photoinduced cooperative interaction of "native defects" of the amorphous semiconductor, which results in an abrupt structural change in the material.")