Optical bistability with two-level atoms

Harry J. Kimble, Albert T. Rosenberger, P. D. Drummond

Luis A. Orozco

C. M. Bowden, F. A. Hopf

Harry J. Kimble, Albert T. Rosenberger, P. D. Drummond

Since the first observation of optical bistability in 1976 (1), a large number of investigations of this phenomenon have appeared in the literature (2). Of particular theoretical interest has been the bistable system composed of "two-level" atoms within an optical resonator. While the theory in this case is well-advanced, only recently have experimental results been obtained (3,4). The work that we report is for absorptive bistability with an intracavity medium that approximates a collection of two-level atoms.

Sunita Singh, Jagdish Rai, C. M. Bowden +1 more

Intrinsic optical bistability due to dipole-dipole interactions among interacting two-level atoms shows strong phase dependence in the presence of a squeezed vacuum. We show that by varying the relative phase between the squeezed vacuum and the incident field, it is possible to excite the system of two-level atoms from the lower to upper branch of the bistable curve. On this basis, an optical switch that utilizes this phase dependence for intrinsic optical bistability is proposed.