Abstract

We consider the usual ring cavity with a nonlinear medium of which the response time is much longer than the period of the light frequency. It is assumed that two polarization modes affect this medium incoherently, i.e. on an additive power basis. We will show by heuristic physical reasoning, based partly on graphical construction, that a sufficient condition for jump type instabilities is that the sum of the inverse relative differential gains for the two modes not exceed unity. We will then briefly sketch how the same result can be obtained from a formal mathematical stability analysis.

© 1985 Optical Society of America