Optical bistability at a nonlinear interface
P. W. E. Smith, J.P. Hermann, W. J. Tomlinson +1 more
Under suitable conditions, the boundary between a linear and a nonlinear (Kerr effect) medium should have a reflection coefficient which exhibits hysteresis as a function of optical intensity. We present the first experimental evidence of this effect. Experiments were performed using ∼1-ns ruby laser pulses incident on a glass-CS2 boundary.
Applied Physics Letters•Dec 1, 1979•121 citations