Optical bistability is demonstrated in a CO(2) laser with an intracavity hot CO(2) cell switching between regular- and sequence-band lines. The relaxation coupling between CO(2) vibrational modes, which leads to cross saturation in competing gains, explains the observed results.
Optical bistability in a laser with an intracavity saturable absorber is a phenomenon theoretically investigated firstly by Lugiato et al(1). The experimental observations in CO2 lasers(2,3) have provided clear evidence of the bistability phenomenon and shown that the absorber parameters could be determined from these observations. In this work a quantitative comparison between a theoretical description of optical bistability and the experimental results is presented for the first time. The parameters defining the laser cavity and the CO2 amplifying medium were measured carefully, and the bistability was observed and analyzed quantitatively as a function of the laser parameters.
Optical bistability in a CO2 infrared laser containing SF6 as a saturable intracavity absorber has been studied under dynamic conditions as a function of a time-dependent laser control parameter. The width of the optical bistability region, the fluctuations in the bistability switching values, and the dependence on the initial conditions have been investigated in this transient optical bistability. A numerical solution of the laser rate equations provides a good interpretation of the experimental results, but some experimental observations cannot be completely explained.