Bistability of an optical response of a photonic crystal with a dense resonant medium as a defect

Optical characteristics of a system consisting of a photonic crystal with a defect layer of a dense resonant medium described by the modified Bloch equation are considered. Transmission spectra are calculated and regions of existence of bistable optical response of the system are found. It is shown that the effect of internal reflection demonstrated by the dense resonant medium results in variation of reflection and transmission spectra of the photonic crystal and the loop width of the bistable response of the dense resonant medium is determined by the structure of the photonic crystal. Original Russian Text ? D.V. Novitsky, S.Yu. Mikhnevich, 2008, published in Optika i Spektroskopiya, 2008, Vol. 104, No. 6, pp. 987–991.