Single-mode instability in optical bistability

Abstract

This paper gives a detailed description of the plane-wave Gaussian models of optical bistability and of the experimental investigations of the single-mode instability induced on a beam of sodium atoms in a cavity by an external driving field. Our goal is to provide a careful comparison of the theoretical and experimental results. We focus on the shape of the instability domain, the nature and behavior of the spontaneous output oscillations produced by the instability, and their frequency dependence on the control parameters. We carry out this comparison using both the plane-wave and Gaussian models. Our analysis shows that the latter is in good quantitative agreement with the experimental results. We investigate in detail the main assumption of the Gaussian model, namely, that the internal cavity field retains the same radial profile as the input field.

Phase-dependent optical bistability and multistability in a semiconductor quantum well system

“…One of the interesting phenomena, the optical bistability (OB) in multilevel atoms confined in an optical cavity [17][18][19][20][21][22][23][24][25][26][27][28][29][30][31][32][33][34], has been the subject of many recent studies because of its potential wide applications in all-optical switches, memories, transistors, and logic circuits [35][36][37][38]. These studies show that one can control the bistable threshold intensity and the hysteresis loop via different approaches such as the field-induced transparency [23], the amplitude fluctuation of the driven field [24,25], the injection of squeezed light [26][27][28], the spontaneously generated coherence [29][30][31][32], the atomic cooperation parameter [33], the use of a low-frequency driven field [34], and so on.…”

Optical-bistability-enabled control of resonant light transmission for an atom-cavity system

“…A resonantly coupled atom-cavity system can be utilized to explore various possibilities, ranging from linear and nonlinear physics [1][2][3][4][5][6][7][8][9], single photon-atom cavity systems [10][11][12][13][14] all the way to multiple atoms [15][16][17][18][19] in a cavity supported mode. In this article we theoretically explore the manipulation of the cavity mode (probe) light for an atom-cavity system, where the light is on resonance or near resonant with a dipole transition of the atoms contained within the mode volume.…”

Optical control of resonant light transmission for an atom-cavity system

“…Such systems have been used to investigate bistability [12][13][14][15][16][17][18][19][20][21], switching [22], and nonlinear processes [23]. The participating atomic level system offers diversity in the phenomena observed with such systems.…”