Study of Optical Nonlinearity in Hydrogenated Amorphous Silicon Carbide Film

Hydrogenated amorphous silicon carbide(a-Sic_(x):H)films were prepared by glow discharge technique with gas mixture of silane(SiH_(4))and methan(CH_(4)).The room-temperature optical bistability was demonstrated in uncoated a-SiC_(x):H films at the excitation wavelength about 532nm.The switch-on intensity of device is about 0.8 MW/cm^(2) and the switching time is in the nanosecond scale.The physical origin of the optical nonlin5arity in these materials is also discussed.