Light Pressure and Bistability Phenomenon

Alain Aspect, R. Bonifacio, Federico Casagrande +1 more

We illustrate a novel opto-mechanical bistability, which is generated by the interaction of an atom with two laser beams, via resonant radiation pressure, in a cavityless configuration. Contrary to the familiar mechanical bistability, this phenomenon arises in momentum, and not in configuration, space.

B. Macke, Bernard Ségard, J. Zemmouri

Adriano Gozzini, Iginio Longo, Sebastiano Barbarino +2 more

Evidence of bistability induced by radiation pressure in a system operating at millimeter bandwidth is presented. The transmittance of a microwave cavity equipped with a movable mirror becomes bistable under the variation of two control parameters: the incident field intensity and the incident field frequency. Good agreement between theory and experiment has been achieved.

W. Lukosz, V. Briguet

We have demonstrated a new mechanism for bistability in integrated optics, viz., light-induced-desorption of molecules from the waveguide surface by which the effective guide index N is changed. Bistability occurs if the desorption rate depends linearly on the incoupled power P' in an input coupler device (see Fig.1), and on the intracavity power in an IO Fabry Perot or ring resonator. This follows theoretically from an analysis analogous to that of the bistable radiation pressure driven waveguide pendulum.1

Pierre Meystre, Murray Sargent