Search results for "optical bistability"
showing 10 items of 24 documents
Bistable phase locking of a laser via monochromatic signal injection
2009
In free running lasers the field phase is not fixed and any value possible value is equally likely (invariant), but can be locked to an external reference by injecting a monochromatic signal field into the cavity. In this way the phase of the slave laser locks to a single value resulting in a monostable phase locking. It could be however of practical interest that the laser field be locked not to a single value but to two different possible values, hence the name bistable phase locking.
Bistable phase locking in a low fresnel number nondegenerate optical oscillator with injected signal
2011
Degenerate four-wave mixing oscillators are phase-bistable cavities. In such systems, above the oscillation threshold, two equivalent states, of equal intensities but opposite phases are generated. This phase bistability extends over the whole range of stable emission, unlike the intensity bistability (in, e.g. a saturable absorber cavity) that exits in a limited range of injection. When the cavity Fresnel number is large different patches of the beam transverse section can have different phases and a pattern forms. Basic patterns here are phase fronts (or domain walls), which are 1D structures separating regions with opposite phase that manifest as dark lines (as the phase jumps by p acros…
Cavity solitons in lasers with spatially modulated injected signal
2009
The injection of a monochromatic signal into a laser is a well-known technique for locking the laser phase to that of the injection. Some years ago another type of injection, called rocking [1,2], was introduced to render the laser phase-locking bistable. Rocking consists of the modulation of the amplitude injection so that its sign changes periodically, or even randomly [3], in time. Here we present an alternative to rocking that leads to the same type of behaviour, namely the appearance of bistable phase locking and, in the case of large Fresnel number lasers, to stable (phase bistable) cavity solitons and extended patterns. The new type of injection we present here is monochromatic, unli…
Multiphase patterns in a degenerate nonlinear oscillator
2017
Degenerate four-wave mixing (DFWM) oscillators are phase-bistable devices. In such systems, two equivalent states, of equal intensities but opposite phases can be generated. When the cavity Fresnel number is large, different regions of the beam transverse section can have different phases, leading to phase patterns like phase fronts (or domain walls), i.e. ID structures separating regions with opposite phase that manifest as dark lines (as the phase jumps by π across the wall), phase domains, and phase solitons, among others.
Transverse effects in a thin slab of material with local-field induced intrinsic optical bistability
2008
We consider a thin slab of dense material exhibiting local-field induced intrinsic optical bistability irradiated by a transversely uniform optical field (holding beam). We study the transverse effects that can arise when local excitations are created by means of a narrow optical beam (writing beam). We show that whereas diffraction effects are negligible, diffusion effects make the excitation-domain walls to move inward or outward in the transverse direction, with a speed that depends on the holding-beam intensity and the diffusion coefficient. Conditions can be found, however, for which the wall movement is counterbalanced by the field transverse gradient so that stable narrow excitation …
Four-phase patterns in a forced nonlinear optical oscillator
2009
We present preliminary theoretical and experimental results indicating that a high Fresnel number nonlinear optical oscillator with planar mirrors can display four-phase multistability, eventually leading to four-phase patterns. Such situation is similar to that emerging in extended oscillatory systems forced within a 4:1 resonance and, to the best of our knowledge, has not been predicted nor observed previously in an optical system.
Optical hysteresis in a semilinear photorefractive coherent oscillator
2007
International audience; High contrast optical bistability is found experimentally in the pump-ratio dependences of the output intensity of a semilinear photorefractive coherent oscillator with two counterpropagating pump waves. The data are in qualitative agreement with the results of calculation.
Quadrature and polarization squeezing in a dispersive optical bistability model
2007
We theoretically study quadrature and polarization squeezing in dispersive optical bistability through a vectorial Kerr cavity model describing a nonlinear cavity filled with an isotropic chi(3) medium in which self-phase and cross-phase modulation, as well as four--wave mixing, occur. We derive expressions for the quantum fluctuations of the output field quadratures as a function of which we express the spectrum of fluctuations of the output field Stokes parameters. We pay particular attention to study how the bifurcations affecting the non-null linearly polarized output mode squeezes the orthogonally polarized vacuum mode, and show how this produces polarization squeezing.
Cross-Kerr nonlinearity: a stability analysis
2015
We analyse the combined effect of the radiation-pressure and cross-Kerr nonlinearity on the stationary solution of the dynamics of a nanomechanical resonator interacting with an electromagnetic cavity. Within this setup, we show how the optical bistability picture induced by the radiation-pressure force is modified by the presence of the cross-Kerr interaction term. More specifically, we show how the optically bistable region, characterising the pure radiation-pressure case, is reduced by the presence of a cross-Kerr coupling term. At the same time, the upper unstable branch is extended by the presence of a moderate cross-Kerr term, while it is reduced for larger values of the cross-Kerr co…
New Molecular-Based Materials for Enabling Electro-Optical Bistability in the Silicon Photonics Platform
2019
Electro-optical bistability is a functionality which can be crucial for a wide range of applications as it can enable non-volatile and ultra-low power switching performance. We investigate the integration of a molecular-based material presenting a Spin Crossover (SCO) effect in the silicon platform for enabling optical bistability. The SCO phenomenon involves a switching process between two molecular spin states. This spin transition comes along with a change in the optical refractive index that can be switched by different external stimuli such as a variation of temperature or light irradiation and which has a hysteretic behaviour. The SCO material can be synthetized as nanoparticles so th…