Abstract

When a passive phase conjugate mirror (PPCM) is conjugating an incident beam, a phase conjugate oscillation can be obtained by placing a mirror near to the PPCM. By placing an additional mirror adjacent to the first mirror, two oscillations can be observed. If we consider these two oscillations as two states of the system, the system exhibits interesting bistable behavior: the presence of one oscillation will prevent the other oscillation building up and vice versa. The system will remain in that state unless it is being disturbed, for example, blocking the oscillation by a piece of paper, then the system switches to the other state and remains in that state even after that piece of paper is removed. The switching between states can also be controlled by an external control beam. A theoretical model based on the threshold of oscillation is proposed. This device has potential application in bistable switches and associative memories.

© 1985 Optical Society of America