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Physical Review A

Transverse patterns in nascent optical bistability

Mustapha Tlidi, Miltos Georgiou, Paul Mandel

Published Dec 1, 1993• 92 citations
Publisher

Abstract

We study the Swift-Hohenberg equation describing a passive optical cavity driven by an external coherent field, valid close to the onset of optical bistability. A linear analysis shows that the system can sustain nontrivial stationary structures for small positive detunings. A weakly nonlinear analysis in the vicinity of the instability points reveals the existence of stable hexagonal structures which eventually give way to rolls. Numerical simulations support such a bifurcation scenario.

DOI
10.1103/physreva.48.4605

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Nonlinear Dynamics in Optical Systems•Jan 1, 1992•0 citations
We study the Swift-Hohenberg equation describing a passive optical cavity driven by an external coherent field, valid close to the onset of optical bistability. A linear analysis shows that the system can sustain nontrivial stationary structures for small positive detunings. A weakly nonlinear analysis in the vicinity of the instability points reveals the existence of stable hexagonal structures which eventually give way to rolls. Numerical simulations support such a bifurcation scenario.
We discuss a novel type of optical instability, which leads to the spontaneous formation of a stationary spatial structure, instead of to the onset of oscillations or pulsations. A passive system is contained in an optical cavity, to which we add two lateral mirrors. Under appropriate conditions, diffraction of radiation can induce the onset of a transverse-stripe structure in an initially uniform plane-wave field configuration. In this paper, we consider the case of a homogeneously broadened two-level system. The model on which our analysis is based is derived from the Maxwell-Bloch equations in the paraxial approximation, using the mean-field limit and assuming a large Fresnel number. We show that, with respect to the bistability parameter C, the threshold of the spatial instability coincides with the bistability threshold for absorptive, resonant optical bistability. The spatial instability requires, however, a detuned configuration and can arise both in the absence and presence of bistability. In the latter case, it can occur both in the lower and in the upper branch of the steady-state curve. The instability is caused by competition between different transverse modes, which realize a situation of spatial coexistence, different from the state of temporal coexistence which characterizes the spontaneous oscillations that arise from the previously known multimode instabilities. Finally, we discuss some points relevant for an experimental observation of this phenomenon.
We derive reduced field equations describing two cases of optical cavities driven by an external coherent field, taking into account the influence of transverse effects. For the passive-cavity case, we focus on the transistor characteristic and the onset of optical bistability. We prove that, depending on the sign of the detuning, different equations are needed. A global description of the field is possible in terms of a generalized Ginzburg-Landau equation, unless the detuning is finite and positive. That case requires a modal expansion. Furthermore, the good-cavity limit is regular, implying the same differentiation according to the sign of the detuning. For the active-cavity case, the same dependence on the sign of the detuning is found. A global description is obtained only for negative detunings. The good-cavity limit is described by a unique equation for all detunings.
The development of spontaneous stationary equilibrium patterns induced by the injection of a laser pump field into a purely absorptive two-level atomic sodium vapour ring cavity is investigated by means of various weakly non-linear stability analyses applied to the appropriate governing evolution equation for this optical phenomenon. In the quasi-equilibrium limit for its atomic variables, the mathematical system modelling that phenomenon can be reduced to a single modified Swift–Hohenberg non-linear partial differential time-evolution equation describing the intracavity field on an unbounded 2D spatial domain. Diffraction of radiation can induce transverse patterns consisting of stripes, squares and hexagonal arrays of bright spots or honeycombs in an initially uniform plane-wave configuration. Then, these theoretical predictions are compared with both relevant experimental evidence and existing numerical simulations from some recent non-linear optical pattern formation studies.
Pioneered by Moloney and collaborators [1], transverse effects of nonlinear passive systems in a ring cavity have been the object of extensive study. Analytical investigations with diffractive coupling in one transverse dimension have demonstrated [1] that static and dynamic transverse structures occur in this system. Extension of the mean-field dispersive model developed from optical bistability to include diffraction [2] independently demonstrated qualitatively similar features, again in one transverse dimension. Investigations in two transverse dimensions have been largely confined to numerical studies by the Moloney group [1], showing for gaussian beam illumination ring structures which develop through azimuthal instability to a pattern of spots which typically execute a slow chaotic motion with a progressive loss of symmetries.