Phenomenological approach to identification of the optical feedback mechanism in the bistable fabry-perot etalon

Abstract

The bistable behaviour of the Fabry-Perot etalon filled with lossy saturating material is analysed by the causal diagrams method. Feedback relationships among the relevant quantities are identified in topological and quantitative terms. A corresponding criterion for the occurrence of bistability is put forward: transmission function of the feedback loop in the diagram as a function of the output light intensity must have a concave bell-shaped character and has to cross the critical level of unity twice. Comparison with the previous treatment based on Maxwell-Bloch equations is made.