Response time of bistable devices based on evaporated thin-film interferometers

A method was developed for investigating the response of bistable optical components and measuring the switching time governed only by the nonlinearity characteristics and dependent weakly on the experimental geometry or on the kinetics of the input radiation. The method was used to investigate the response characteristics of bistable devices based on vacuum-evaporated thin-film semiconductor interferometers. The switching time of bistable systems made using crystalline substrates was ~ 500 nsec.