Bistability threshold inside hysteresis loop of nonlinear fiber Bragg gratings.

We show the Cross Phase Modulation (XPM) effect between CW probe that operates in bistability region and strong Gaussian pump in a Fiber Bragg Grating (FBG) by Implicit 4th Order Runge-Kutta Method. The XPM effect results in three unique nonlinear switching behaviors of the probe transmission depending on the pump peak intensity and its Full Width Half Maximum (FWHM) value. From this observation, we offer the FBG three potential nonlinear switching applications in all-optical signal processing domain as: a step-up all-optical switching, an all-optical inverter, and an all-optical limiter. The bistability threshold that determines the nonlinear switching behaviors of probe transmission after Gaussian pump injection is defined numerically and shown to be equivalent to the unstable state inside hysteresis loop.