Abstract
Under appropriate conditions, the light intensity transmitted by an interferometer filled with a non-linear medium and irradiated by a resonant or near-resonant driving field exhibits one or many hysteresis cycles, and optical bi- or multi-stability.
In this paper, we analyze the response of such systems to sudden changes in the driving field. The existence of anomalous thresholds shows that it is not sufficient in general to consider the standard intensity-out vs. intensity-in curves. Rather, a detailed analysis of the phase-space of the system must be carried out. We discuss the cases of absorptive and dispersive bistability. We show that in all cases, the phase of the driving field plays an essential role.
This high sensitivity to phases leads in particular to the question of the effect of phase-noise in the driving field. We present preliminary results on this problem.
Research supported by the Bundesministerium fur Forschung und Technologie and Euratom.
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References
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Note added in proof: in real lasers, frequency fluctuations due to the jitter of the resonator are likely to give the main contribution to the line width (S. F. Jacobs, private communication). In this context, see the analysis of frequency switching by F. A. Hopf and S. Shakir, this volume.
See also the Panel Discussion, this volume and in particular the comments of J. Farina.
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© 1981 Plenum Press, New York
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Cresser, J.D., Meystre, P. (1981). The Role of Phases in the Transient Dynamics of Nonlinear Interferometers. In: Bowden, C.M., Ciftan, M., Robl, H.R. (eds) Optical Bistability. Springer, Boston, MA. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4684-3941-0_16
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4684-3941-0_16
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