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Physical Review Letters

Two-Photon Double-Beam Optical Bistability

Govind Prasad Agrawal, Christos Flytzanis

Published Apr 21, 1980• 67 citations
Publisher

Abstract

The principle of bistable operation with two independent input optical beams is presented; the nonlinear medium inside a Fabry-Perot resonator is in two-photon resonance with the beams. The transmission characteristics of the bistable device are derived in both the absorptive and the dispersive regimes. The degenerate case, and the effect of a new parameter associated with the optical Stark shift in a two-photon process, are also discussed.

DOI
10.1103/physrevlett.44.1058

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The principle of bistable operation with two independent input optical beams is presented; the nonlinear medium inside a Fabry-Perot resonator is in two-photon resonance with the beams. The transmission characteristics of the bistable device are derived in both the absorptive and the dispersive regimes. The degenerate case, and the effect of a new parameter associated with the optical Stark shift in a two-photon process, are also discussed.
Transmission characteristics of a nonlinear Fabry-Perot interferometer with two independent optical beams are considered under steady-state conditions. The sum frequency of two beams is taken to be near a two-photon resonance of the nonlinear medium. Two beams are coupled through the intensity-dependent susceptibility and influence propagation of each other in a mutual way. A set of two coupled-state equations is derived and it incorporates saturated absorption and dispersion as well as the effect of optical Stark shift. The system is found to have as many as seven stationary states, and at most, three are stable among them. The degenerate case of a single beam in two-photon resonance with the medium is also considered with particular emphasis on the effect of the optical Stark shift on optical bistability.
The theory of the optical multistability by two-photon resonant interaction is investigated. The nonlinear medium inside a Fabry-Perot cavity is in two-photon resonance with the laser beam. The two-photon equation of state including dynamical Stark shift and relaxation parameters is obtained and studied under mean-field approximation. The equations for both Fabry-Perot cavity and ring cavity take basically the same form. The physics mechanisms resulting in optical multistability are also studied. It has been shown that the combined effects of Kerr switching and saturation absorption switching can lead to two-photon optical double-bistability, tristability as well as bistability. Furthermore, the criterion conditions under which double-bistability or tristability can occur are given and discussed. Finally, the phase-conjugated reflectivity by two-photon four-wave mixing is also shown to exhibit multistability as well as hysteresis.
When the output parameter of an optical device could be a multivalued function of the input parameter, this device can be working in an optical bistable status. The most typical optical bistable device is a Fabry–Perot cavity containing a nonlinear optical medium, the refractive index of which depends on the light intensity. Upon the action of an intense input optical beam, the transmitted (or reflected) intensity of this device may exhibit a nonlinear response to the incident light intensity variation and, especially under appropriate working conditions, the characteristic output/input curve may manifest a single (or multiple) hysteresis loop(s). Such type of optical bistable device can be used as an optical differential amplifier, optical switch, optical limiter, optical clipper, optical discriminator, or an optical memory element, depending on the chosen nonlinear medium and operation conditions.
One of the most interesting and applicable effects of nonlinear optics is optical bistability. This phenomenon is exhibited by certain resonant optical structures where it is possible to have two stable steady transmission states for the device, depending on the history of the input. Such a bistable device may be useful for optical computing elements as a result of its memory characteristics. Optical bistability behaviour is usually observed by inserting a nonlinear matter inside a Fabry–Perot interferometer. But in this study, it was shown that this can be achieved without the application of any optical resonator. Two laser beams were used to interact with the photorefractive media (doped PMMA polymer) which resulted in the bistability of the intensity of transmitted wave. Feedback was provided by a periodic grating created in the photorefractive polymer PMMA.
A theory of modulation of optical bistability of a main (signal) beam by an additional (control) beam is presented. It is supposed that the mirrors composing a Fabry-Perot cavity are highly reflective to the signal beam but transparent to the control beam. We show that the property of a medium in the cavity, and hence the transmission of the signal beam through the cavity, is modulated by the control beam which changes the dielectric susceptibility of the intracavity medium. Amplification of the signal beam occurs in the limit of a strong control beam. The process can be viewed as a parametric transfer of energy between the signal beam and the control beam with the nonlinear medium providing the nonlinear susceptibility that couples the beams. In addition, multibistability in the transmission characteristics of the signal beam is predicted and attributed to the saturation effect of the multiphoton processes.