A newly developed numerical method of solving nonlinear Fokker-Planck equations is applied to study an acousto-optic bistability with additive noise. The time evolution of the probability distribution for the transmitted light is calculated for a double-well potential. The time-dependent moments are calculated.
On the basis of the absorptive bistability model, including the fluctuations, we rederive in the good-cavity limit the Fokker-Planck equation describing the time evolution of the quasiprobability distribution for the transmitted field amplitude. It is shown that on a semiclassical level different variants of the Fokker-Planck equation are possible. The equation of Bonifacio, Gronchi, and Lugiato is solved in terms of a path integral which involves a generalized Wiener measure. In order to calculate the averages of transmitted field moments as functions of time, a Monte Carlo integration scheme is used. This scheme consists in constructing random trajectories which result from the Langevin equation statistically equivalent to the derived Fokker-Planck equation. Numerical results in the bistable domain are presented for large values of the fluctuation parameter.
We solve numerically the simplest Fokker-Planck equation which describes the effects of amplitude noise in absorbitive optical bistability. When the semiclassical solution exhibits critical slowing down, the probability distribution becomes two-peaked in a sizable time interval during the approach to the one-peaked steady-state distribution. The switching time undergoes considerable fluctuations, and on the average it is shorter than predicted by semiclassical theory. These noise effects seem accessible to experimental observation.
Dispersive optical bistability with fluctuations is analyzed in the mean-field approximation. It is shown that the phase shift of the transmitted field in the purely dispersive case exhibits hysteresis and bistable behavior in a manner similar to that of the transmitted intensity. The Fokker-Planck equation describing the time evolution of the quasiprobability distribution for the transmitted-field amplitude is obtained. The time-dependent moments of the transmitted light are calculated with the use of a Monte Carlo integration scheme.
We formulate a running-wave, single-mode model for purely dispersive optical bistability that incorporates amplitude and frequency fluctuations in the incident-field, cavity-length fluctuations, and thermal noise in the radiation field and in the material. This model is given by a set of three Langevin-type equations for the real and the imaginary parts of the slowly varying electric field and for the material variable. In the white-noise limit, it is equivalent to a Fokker–Planck equation in three variables. Even if our model can also describe a Kerr medium or a two-level system in a suitable range of parameters, we are interested mainly in the case of miniaturized all-optical bistable devices that utilize semiconductor dispersive media. In this situation, we can adiabatically eliminate the field variables and therefore reduce the problem to a single stochastic differential equation in one variable, which contains several terms of additive and multiplicative noise. We find that noise in the imaginary part of the slowly varying electric field does not contribute to this equation. In the white-noise case, our stochastic equation is equivalent to a Fokker–Planck equation in one variable, whereas in the case of colored noise we obtain a one-dimensional Fokker–Planck equation only in the limit of short correlation times. Finally, we calculate the stationary solution of the resulting Fokker–Planck equation. We show that the presence of colored noise narrows the peaks of the probability distribution at steady state with respect to the white-noise case.
We formulate a running wave, singlemode model for purely dispersive optical bistability, which incorporates amplitude and frequency fluctuations in the incident field, cavity length fluctuations, thermal noise in the radiation field and in the material (1). This model is given by a set of three Langevin-type equations for the real and the imaginary part of the slowly-varying electric field, and for the material variable. In the white noise limit, it is equivalent to a Fokker-Planck equation in three variables. Even if our model can describe also a Kerr medium or a two-level system in a suitable range of parameters, we are mainly interested in the case of miniaturized all–optical bistable devices which utilize semiconductor dispersive media. In this situation, we can adiabatically eliminate the field variables and therefore reduce the problem to a single stochastic differential equation in one variable, which contains several terms of additive and multiplicative noise. We find that noise in the imaginary part of the slowly varying electric field does not contribute to this equation. In the white, -noise case, our stochastic equation is equivalent to a Fokker-Planck equation in one variable, whereas in the case of colored noise we obtain a onedimensional Fokker-Planck equation only in the limit of short correlation times.