A New Type of Bistable Switching in Two-Dimensional Nonlinear Optical Superlattices

We investigate theoretically optical response in a two-dilnensional optical superlattice with Kerr-type nonlinearity. We find that in addition to the bistability reported in Phys. Rev. Lett. 71 (1993) 1003 by Xu et al., a new type of bistable switching behavior exists. This bistability is based on the occurrence of the stop gap in the linear spectra and the nonlinear mechanism on it, which makes switching between transmitting and non-transmitting states achievable.