Localization and Threshold of Bistable Switching by Gap-Edge Shifting

We numerically investigate the localization behaviour of light propagation in a one-dimensional nonlinear photonic crystal (1D-NPC). It is found that the localization of a high gap-edge mode is better than that of a low one, so that the switching threshold of the 1D-NPC with plus Kerr L-layers is much lower than that with minus Kerr H-layers. For a structure of 16 periods, the threshold of the structure with nonlinear L-layers is about 1/10 of that with nonlinear H-layers in the same level of nonlinear refractive coefficient.