Optical bistability that is due to mutual self-action of counterpropagating beams of light.
A new kind of optical bistability is discussed that is based on mutual self-action of light beams in a nonlinear medium. In particular, fundamentally new devices are proposed that use two counterpropagating incident beams and no reflection feedback. Self-focusing (or self-defocusing) and self-bending provide bistability with positive or negative nonlinearity.
Kaplan
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Francis Bitter National Magnet Laboratory, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, Massachusetts 02139, USA.