Abstract
The interaction of a three-level atomic medium with two degenerate sublevels in the ground state with a coherent radiation field in a ring cavity is investigated. We pay specific attention to atomic coherence within the ground-state doublet, and introduce separate decay rates for the ground-state coherence and the population difference. If the atomic density exceeds a critical value, the system exhibits “symmetric bistability”. In addition, in certain regions of parameter space we find symmetry-breaking branches, yielding optical multistability. We propose physical mechanisms for the symmetric as well as for the symmetry-breaking instability.
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Work supported by the Swiss National Science Foundation
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Kurmann, J., Thomas, H. Optical multistability and ground-state coherence in a three-level system. Z. Physik B - Condensed Matter 62, 121–135 (1985). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF01303741
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF01303741