Dispersive optical bistability in a Fabry-Perot cavity

This is a numerical analysis of the steady-state Maxwell-Bloch equations in a Fabry-Perot cavity with standing waves, atomic detuning and cavity mistuning; the atoms are homogeneously broadened. In the Mean-Field Approximation (MFA) limit, the resulting output-input characteristics agree exactly with the analytical predictions for a ring cavity. This leads to the derivation of a state equation for the Fabry-Perot cavity in the MFA limit identical to that for a ring cavity. Agreement with the MFA within 4% are obtained when αL < 3, the mirror reflectivity is above 90%, and the cavity mistuning below 4% of its free spectral range. Simulations beyond the scope of the MFA are also made and the case of purely dispersive optical bistability is also considered.     

Double-beam two-photon optical bistability in a Fabry-Perot cavity with polar molecules

Optical bistability in a micrometre-sized Fabry-Perot cavity, filled with appropriate polar molecules, is analysed after two incident beams (with frequenciesgw ₁ andgw ₂) produce in the system a two-photon resonance at frequencygw ₁ +gw ₂. One-photon resonances at the frequenciesgw ₁ andgw ₂ are discarded. It was not necessary to assume a particular relationship betweengw ₁ andgw ₂, and the single-beam two-photon optical bistability whengw ₁ andgw ₂ are of the same order or equal is emphasized.     

The C-number treatment for one-photon absorptive optical bistability in Fabry-Perot cavity

The problem of optical bistability in a standing wave cavity in the steady state leads to a pair of coupled, nonlinear, ordinary differential equations for the forward and backward waves. Here an approach different from the truncation of hierarchy and spatial average is applied to obtain this pair of equations. The results are compared with those obtained from the other approaches.     

基于光纤Fabry-Perot滤波器的电光混合光学双稳态

提出了一种新型的电光混合光纤光学双稳装置,它由波长为1.55μm带尾纤的DFB半导体激光器、全光纤可调谐Fabry_Perot滤波器和电光反馈电路构成。实验中通过改变输入光强实现了光学双稳运转。讨论了该双稳器件在激光光强稳定器和光纤传感器方面的应用。     

Emission spectra and intrinsic optical bistability in a two-level medium

Scattering of resonant radiation in a dense two-level medium is studied theoretically accounting for local field effects and renormalisation of the resonance frequency. Intrinsic optical bistability is viewed as switching between different spectral patterns of fluorescent light controlled by the incident field strength. Response spectra are calculated analytically for the entire hysteresis loop of atomic excitation. The equations to describe the non-linear interaction of an atomic ensemble with light are derived from the Bogolubov-Born-Green-Kirkwood-Yvon hierarchy for reduced single particle density matrices of atoms and quantised field modes and their correlation operators. The spectral power of scattered light with separated coherent and incoherent constituents is obtained straightforwardly within the hierarchy. The formula obtained for emission spectra can be used to distinguish between possible mechanisms suggested to produce intrinsic bistability in experiments.     

Effective medium approximation for optical bistability in nonlinear metal-dielectric composites

A general theory based on the spectral representation method and effective medium approximation is adopted to investigate the optical bistable behavior in a nonlinear two-phase composite with symmetrical microstructure, in which the metal particles of the volume fraction p and the dielectric particles of the volume fraction 1−p are randomly dispersed but oriented with respect to one another. The relation between the spatial average of local field squared and the external applied field is established through the spectral density function m(x), obtained from the modified Bruggeman effective medium approximation. We find that the optical bistability (OB) is dependent on the depolarization factor L of the components and the volume fraction p. For a given p, we predict that OB can be observed only when L is larger than the critical value L_c, and bistable behavior is more pronounced at large L. Moreover, numerical results show that both the upper threshold field and the width of OB region increase monotonically as L increases. The field-dependent reflectance at normal incidence R in random composites is also investigated.     

Controllable optical bistability of Bose-Einstein condensate in an optical cavity with a Kerr medium

We study the optical bistability for a Bose-Einstein condensate of atoms in a driven optical cavity with a Kerr medium. We find that both the threshold point of optical bistability transition and the width of optical bistability hysteresis can be controlled by appropriately adjusting the Kerr interaction between the photons. In particular, we show that the optical bistability will disappear when the Kerr interaction exceeds a critical value.     

Polarization bistability in a nonlinear birefringent Fabry-Perot cavity

Polarization bistability and switching are described theoretically and demonstrated experimentally for a birefringent nonlinear Fabry-Perot cavity.     

Effect of Stoke's displacement of absorption and emission bands on optical bistability in a Fabry-Perot interferometer

Journal of Applied Spectroscopy -     

Controlling the optical bistability and transmission coefficient in a four-level atomic medium

A novel four level atomic configuration is proposed for controlling the optical bistability and transmission coefficient with application on all-optical switching. Two circularly polarized components from a weak linearly-polarized probe beam are interacted separately by two transitions of this medium. A coherent coupling field has derived another atomic transition. It is demonstrated that the transmission coefficient of two orthogonally polarized beams at different frequencies can be achieved by adjusting the magnitude of the external magnetic field. It is found that the threshold of the optical bistability can be controlled by magnitude of the external magnetic field. Also, it is shown that optical bistability can be converted to optical multistability by switching the two orthogonally polarized beams.     

Non-collinear multi-wave mixing in a Doppler-broadened two-level medium

Received: 8 April 1998/Revised version: 3 June 1998     

Enhanced terahertz bistability in a nonlinear Fabry-Perot resonator with n-type quantum wells

The intrinsic bistable terahertz response of intersubband plasmons in wide n-type delta-doped quantum wells is predicted to be enhanced by a resonant Fabry-Perot cavity. With a simple low-Q resonator, the threshold for bistability is decreased by a factor of 2-3 compared with that for bare multiple quantum wells.     

Transients in optical bistability

In this paper we report on both a theoretical model for the transients in optical bistability in a Fabry-Perot cavity and the corresponding experimental results. An analytical calculation permits to predict the shape of the transient curves and the order of magnitude of their time duration in the case of a slow sweep of the length of the cavity. The experiment, which uses the nonlinearity arising from a two-photon transition in rubidium, yields results in good agreement with the theoretical calculation.Work supported by the D.R.E.T.     

On the possibility of detecting the relaxation optical bistability in an extended medium

The possibility for efficient detection of wave phenomena in an optically extended semiconductor in the case of development of instability in a system with the relaxation mechanism of optical bistability was studied. It is shown that the use of two-wave action allows the development of processes in the bulk of the semiconductor to be detected with the help of probing radiation. The influence of diffusion and thermal conductivity on the characteristics of wave processes in a semiconductor and the possibility of realizing the detection are revealed.     

Coherence-controlled transparency and far-from-degenerate parametric gain in a strongly absorbing Doppler-broadened medium

An inversionless gain of anti-Stokes radiation above the oscillation threshold in an optically dense far-from-degenerate double- ? Doppler-broadened medium accompanied by Stokes gain is predicted. The outcomes are illustrated with numerical simulations applied to sodium dimer vapor. Optical switching from absorption to gain via transparency controlled by a small variation of the medium and of the driving radiation parameters, which are at a level of less than one photon per molecule, is shown.     

Dispersive optical bistability in a ring cavity

Equations governing the behaviour of a single mode high-Q ring cavity are obtained for a coherent driving field (detuned to both cavity and atoms) and inhomogeneously broadened atomic transitions using a Hamiltonian approach. We find the region of bistability and critical points in the homogeneous broadening case. Numerical results including inhomogeneous broadening show that bistability is obtained more readily by detuning both the atomic transition and the cavity mode relative to the driving field.     

Spectrally selective optical pumping in Doppler-broadened cesium atoms

The D1 line spectrally selective pumping process in Doppler-broadened cesium is analyzed by solving the optical Bloch equations. The process, described by a three-level model with the Λ scheme, shows that the saturation intensity of broadened atoms is three orders of magnitude larger than that of resting atoms. The |Fg = 3 〉→ |Fe = 4 〉resonance pumping can result in the ground state |Fg = 4 〉, mF = 4 〉sublevel having a maximum population of 0.157 and the population difference would be about 0.01 in two adjacent magnetic sublevels of the hyperfine (HF) state Fg = 4. To enhance the anisotropy in the ground state, we suggest employing dichromatic optical HF pumping by adding a laser to excite D1 line |Fg = 4 〉→ |Fe = 3 〉transition, in which the cesium magnetometer sensitivity increases by half a magnitude and is unaffected by the nonlinear Zeeman effect even in Earth's average magnetic field.     

A model for optical bistability in semiconductors

A theoretical model of the excitation of a semiconductor by laser is considered. The novelty of this work is that, as distinguished from previous works, the effect of electron-hole interactions on optical bistability is included analytically.