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International Laser Science Conference

Diffraction, dispersion, propagation, and coherent transient effects in unidirectional nonlinear ring cavity optical bistability

F. P. Mattar, Yves Claude

Published Jan 1, 1986• 0 citations
Publisher

Abstract

We report the transient nonadiabatic generalization of Bonifacio-Lugiato1 cw nonlinear ring cavity optical bistability (NRCOB) with mirrors that ensure the necessary feedback. A semiclassical formalism is adopted, consisting of a paraxial wave equation coupled to the two-level sharp-line density matrix which includes detuning and relaxation times in conjunction with boundary conditions at the mirrors. The existing super-fluorescence finite difference code2 with radial variations of the Beer length has been modified to simulate the NRCOB with the free space propagation between the mirror treated with a finite Hankel series.3

DOI
10.1364/ils.1986.thl60

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This thesis presents the theory of the driven optical ring cavity containing a nonlinear material. First, an overview of the history of bistability and spatial solitons in driven nonlinear cavities is outlined. Then, the basic theory of the optical Kerr effect is presented and two of its consequences are outlined: optical bistability and spatial solitons. Within this background, the mirror feedback model is derived from the Maxwell-Bloch equations and considerations of the classical optics of the cavity. This model is analytically shown to exhibit bistability in the plane wave case. The mean-field model is subsequently derived by applying the mean-field limit to the Maxwell-Bloch equations and the cavity optics. In addition, the mean-field model is analytically shown to exhibit bistability in the plane wave case. Numerical simulations are performed on the mean-field model demonstrating the existence of: (i) plane wave bistability, (ii) transverse modulational bistability, (iii) the ability to “switch†between bistable states in both the plane wave and modulated case, (iv) instabilities in the modulated case and (v) the possibility for optimization of the switching process. Finally, an application of bistable driven cavities is explored: an all-optical digital information processor and storage device.

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IEEE Journal of Quantum Electronics•Sep 1, 1985•18 citations
We report the transient nonadiabatic generalization of Bonifacio-Lugiato1 cw nonlinear ring cavity optical bistability (NRCOB) with mirrors that ensure the necessary feedback. A semiclassical formalism is adopted, consisting of a paraxial wave equation coupled to the two-level sharp-line density matrix which includes detuning and relaxation times in conjunction with boundary conditions at the mirrors. The existing super-fluorescence finite difference code2 with radial variations of the Beer length has been modified to simulate the NRCOB with the free space propagation between the mirror treated with a finite Hankel series.3
The mathematical models of dispersive optical bistability in unidirectional ring cavity yield the transmitted intensity It as a function of the input intensity Iin with additional parameters (mirror reflectivity R and phase shift β). There are two feedback elements in this description: the energy (and, hence, also causal) feedback quantified by R and the purely causal feedback given by dependence of the phase shift on the transmitted power, β=β0+β2It. The apparatus of causal diagrams method is used to represent and analyze phenomena in the ring cavity. The region of physically unstable states is marked by the condition tloop>1, where tloop is the transmission function of the feedback loop ItβIinIt present in the diagram. Besides the critical points defined by tloop=1 (which are linked to the existence of bistability), there are two conditions marked by tloop=0 in which the cavity state is insensitive to the values of R.
In Chapter 9 we discussed the case of a nonlinear cavity containing an active medium. In this framework, the outstanding phenomenon which arises is laser emission, and we calculated the stationary solutions for the ring laser. In this chapter, instead, we turn our attention to the passive nonlinear cavity and in this framework the outstanding phenomenon is optical bistability , i.e. the existence of two distinct stable stationary states that coexist for the same fixed values of the parameters in play. This phenomenon can arise also in the case of an active system contained in a cavity, as we have already noted in Section 9.1 and as we will discuss further in connection with the laser with injected signal, but it became popular from the studies of nonlinear passive optical cavities in the 1970s and 1980s. In contrast to the laser case, in the passive configuration we use an input coherent field, which is injected into the cavity. We discussed this case in Chapter 8 and derived a general equation for the transmission of the cavity (Eq. (8.23)), which we used for an empty cavity and for a linear cavity in Sections 8.4 and 8.5, respectively. In this chapter we will discuss the full nonlinear configuration. It is customary to identify two extreme cases of optical bistability called absorptive optical bistability and dispersive or refractive optical bistability . In both cases an essential ingredient to obtain the bistable behavior is the feedback action exerted by the mirrors of the cavity. In the purely absorptive configuration, in which there is exact resonance among the frequencies of the input field, of the atoms and of the cavity, the other essential ingredient is the saturable nonlinearity of the absorption. In the dispersive case, instead, the main feature is the nonlinearity of the refractive index. These two cases will be illustrated in Sections 11.1 and 11.2, respectively, both “exactly” and in the low-transmission limit.
This thesis presents the theory of the driven optical ring cavity containing a nonlinear material. First, an overview of the history of bistability and spatial solitons in driven nonlinear cavities is outlined. Then, the basic theory of the optical Kerr effect is presented and two of its consequences are outlined: optical bistability and spatial solitons. Within this background, the mirror feedback model is derived from the Maxwell-Bloch equations and considerations of the classical optics of the cavity. This model is analytically shown to exhibit bistability in the plane wave case. The mean-field model is subsequently derived by applying the mean-field limit to the Maxwell-Bloch equations and the cavity optics. In addition, the mean-field model is analytically shown to exhibit bistability in the plane wave case. Numerical simulations are performed on the mean-field model demonstrating the existence of: (i) plane wave bistability, (ii) transverse modulational bistability, (iii) the ability to “switch†between bistable states in both the plane wave and modulated case, (iv) instabilities in the modulated case and (v) the possibility for optimization of the switching process. Finally, an application of bistable driven cavities is explored: an all-optical digital information processor and storage device.
Physical reasons for the development of spatial and temporal instabilities realizing in optical bistability (OB) cavity- free systems are analyzed. It is shown that there are certain types of instability. We describe diffraction instability of light beams due to its propagation through a boundary on a high absorption domain. We consider instability generated by nonlinear dependence of a relaxation time of excited states of atoms (molecules) on vibration temperature or on room temperature under the condition of presence (or absence) of nonlinear absorption. We investigate instability due to an influence of laser- induced electric field and instability caused by the delay in a scheme with additional lateral feedback and instability in a scheme with mirror having a hole at its axis caused by dynamical lenses.
A transverse optical bistability is defined here as a bistability that would not occur with a plane-wave input, i.e., it depends crucially upon the radial variations in the input. Such bistabilities are characterized by much more pronounced changes in transverse profiles than in total transmission. An optical cavity is not required, making such systems good candidates for continuous wave studies of delayed-feedback instabilities which require a round-trip time longer than the medium response time. Trapping bistability and diffraction-free-encoding bistability are two limiting cases of transverse optical bistabilities. Trapping bistability occurs only for a long self-focusing nonlinear medium and arises from self-trapping of a single beam with a single feedback mirror or from cross trapping of two counterpropagating beams. In the diffraction-free-encoding case, diffraction is negligible through the portion of the nonlinear medium performing the encoding, but it is significant through any remaining medium and in the free-space propagation to the mirror and back. This paper is organized as follows: The physics of transverse optical bistabilities is summarized in Section I. Theoretical models are presented in Section II. A thin-sample-encoding (TSE) rings model is defined and shown not only to predict transverse bistability but also to account for the interference rings observed to accompany TSE bistability; it also yields delayed-feedback instabilities with a rich bifurcation sequence. Transverse bistability using a short length of sodium vapor is reported under TSE and DFE conditions in Section III. Recently it was discovered that TSE bistability has been seen only when the feedback beam is displaced from the input by about one beam diameter at the sodium. It remains to be determined just how much the nonconcentric feedback assists the concentric bistability predicted by the TSE rings model. A delayed-feedback instability with a period of twice the round-trip time is also seen.