Optical Bistability Induced by Free Carrier Dispersion in the Silicon Micro-Ring Resonators

The dispersion bistability in the silicon micro-ring resonators (MRRs) manifests itself due to the competition between the thermo-optic effect and the free-carrier dispersion (FCD) induced by two-photon absorption [1] . The experimental observation of optical bistability induced by the FCD was reported in work [2] for short pulse regime. In this work we demonstrate, for the first time to our knowledge, the carrier-induced bistability in the silicon MRRs under the continuous wave (CW) pumping.