Optical bistability induced by spin–orbit coupling in the carbon-nanotube quantum dots

Abstract

We theoretically investigate steady-state behaviors of carbon nanotube quantum dots with spin-orbit coupling in a unidirectional ring cavity. Our results show that the spin-orbit coupling can induce optical bistability. In addition to the existence of spin-orbit coupling, switching optical bistability to optical multistability or vice versa is realized by adjusting detuning of the probe field. Our results show that the carbon nanotube quantum dots will possibly be a promising candidate for realizing all-optical switching.