Le Journal de Physique Colloques
OPTIMISED INSTABILITY THRESHOLDS IN A NONLINEAR RING CAVITY CONTAINING A KERR MEDIUM
W. J. Firth, Scott Sinclair
Abstract
Stability analysis of an arbitrary finesse ring cavity containing a Kerr medium reveals an absolute minimum threshold for the driving intensity necessary for realisation of self-pulsing instabilities. This threshold is minimised not only with respect to cavity mistuning, but also with respect to the medium response time. The instability threshold is typically six times that for optical bistability. We have also generalised this model to include the effects of transverse diffusion.