Manipulating the optical bistability at terahertz frequency in the Fabry-Perot cavity with graphene

We investigate theoretically the optical bistability from a Fabry-Perot cavity with graphene in the terahertz ( THz) frequency. It is demonstrated that the optical bistablility in this cavity can be realized due to the electric field enhancement and the giant third-order nonlinear conductivity of graphene. The optical bistable behavior is strongly dependent on the transmission amplitude of the mirror and the position of the graphene in the cavity. It is especially important that the hysterical behaviors of the transmitted light rely on the optical conductivity of graphene, making the Fabry-Perot cavity to be a good candidate for dynamic tunable optical bistable device in the THz frequencies, owing to the possibility of high tunability of graphene conductivity by means of external electrostatic or magnetostatic field. (C) 2015 Optical Society of America