Abstract

An anomalous form of bistability and hysteresis has been observed in a dye laser at low excitation, when for a given pump power the dye laser may be either on or off. The dye laser exhibits a memory. It is found that if the pump beam is briefly interrupted the dye laser returns to the original on or off branch of the hysteresis cycle, but if the dye laser beam is interrupted, the laser always remains off. Ancillary experiments suggest that a multilayer mirror is responsible.

© 1989 Optical Society of America