Physical Review A
Effect of a spectral line with Doppler broadening on optical bistability in a ring cavity
Qiyuan Feng, Liu Ya-jie, Yang Xing-yu
Abstract
We discuss the effect of a spectral line with Doppler broadening on optical bistability in a ring cavity which contains a saturable absorber of two-level atoms. In this paper, we first derive a generalized equation that is satisfied by the output light intensity of this system from the Langevin equations in H. Haken's Laser Theory (Springer, Heidelberg, 1970). Then, we simplify the generalized equation for a single mode. We study the single-mode equation for both nonexisting and existing spontaneous emission and obtain the result that the square of the bistability loop increases with the increase of Doppler broadening of the spectral line.