Optical bistability of stimulated-emission lines in Sm(3+)-doped glass microspheres

A third-order optical nonlinear effect in a spherical glass resonator doped with Sm(3+) ions has been observed on stimulated emission lines of the (4)G(5/2)-(6)H(7/2) transition, in which the excitation beam of an Ar(+) laser in a 488-nm single line is coupled with the glass resonator through a prism. A spherical form is produced during a free fall of fractional glasses in a longitudinal electric furnace configured vertically. The prism-coupled glass microsphere exhibits sufficient performance to confine photon energy as a resonance of light inside the sphere and offers the prospect of new applications to functional photonic circuits.