Bistable Laser Schemes

Abstract

In a laser with a saturable absorber, bistability and hysteresis variation of the output power with pump variation exist. If such a laser has a large aperture, and diffraction serves as the dominant mechanism of transverse coupling, formation is possible of laser solitons — stable “bright” islands of lasing on a background of a “black” nonlasing state over the rest of the aperture. Similar dissipative localized structures arise in cavity-less schemes of “convective bistability” — a continuous medium with nonlinear amplification and absorption. The set of laser solitons includes structures with the following characteristics: geometrically one-, two-, and three-dimensional; stationary and oscillating; transversely motionless, moving, and rotating; with a regular wavefront and with screw dislocations of different orders; and single and bound configurations. Interaction of laser solitons and their interaction with the scheme inhomogeneities can lead to changes in soliton type and number.