Rigorous analysis of bistable memory in silica toroid microcavity

We model the nonlinear response of a silica toroid microcavity using coupled mode theory and a finite element method, and successfully obtain Kerr bistable operation that does not suffer from thermo-optic effect by optimizing the fiber-cavity coupling. Our analysis shows it is possible to demonstrate a Kerr bistable memory with a memory holding time of 500 ns at an extremely low energy consumption.