Use of bidirectional ring cavity for optically bistable devices

M. L. Asquini, Federico Casagrande

Saad S. M. Hassan, P. D. Drummond, Daniel F. Walls

P. I. Khadzhi, Vladimir A. Lichman, O. F. Pasechnik

Govind Prasad Agrawal

Two input beams at the same frequency excite the counter-propagating modes of a bidirectional ring cavity. These modes are coupled in the presence of a homogeneously broadened nonlinear medium and the optical device acts as two bistable switches whose characteristics can be mutually controlled. After a proper account of interference between the forward and backward waves, new features of optical bistability in a bidirectional ring cavity are discussed. It is found that when the intensity of one of the incident beams is held fixed in a critical range, the device switches on but never switches off as the intensity of the other beam is first increased and then decreased to zero.

Govind Prasad Agrawal

In most of the optically bistable devices an external driving field excites a single-cavity mode of a nonlinear Fabry-Perot interferometer. In this paper it is shown that the use of a bidirectional ring cavity, in which two counterpropagating modes at the same frequency are excited, introduces re markable and useful qualitative features in the cavity transmission. Such a system appears to have potential for device applications.

P. W. E. Smith