Abstract

A new type of active optical bistability is described: frequency bistability as well as light intensity bistability. The device is quite simple—a laser with a passive filter. The gain medium of the laser is homogeneously broadened and has a broad fluorescence spectrum much greater than the longitudinal mode interval. The passive filter, in fact, is a set of mirrors with reflectivity varying with frequency. Its center frequency, that is, the frequency of maximum reflectivity, is different from that of the gain medium. The mechanism of this bistability is making use of the nonlinearity of both gain medium and passive filter vs frequency.

© 1986 Optical Society of America