title: Describing functions for nonlinear optical systems.
abstract: The concept of describing functions is useful for analyzing and designing nonlinear systems. A proposal for using the idea of describing functions for studying the behavior of a nonlinear optical processing system is given. The describing function can be used in the same way that a coherent transfer function or optical transfer function is used to characterize linear, shift-invariant optical processors. Two coherent optical systems for measuring the magnitude of the describing function of nonlinear optical processors are suggested.
authors.forename: A K
authors.initials: AK
authors.lastname: Ghosh