Abstract

Fluctuational transitions between the stable states of a passive optically bistable device have been observed and investigated theoretically and experimentally in the absence of spatial effects (for a lumped-parameter system). The problem of calculation of transition probabilities in dynamical systems driven by weak Gaussian noise has been reduced to logarithmic accuracy to a variational problem which is solved for some types of colored noise. The procedure of the experimental determination of the transition probabilities from the data on transmitted intensity is proposed for the case of a broad-band noise in the intensity of incident radiation. The onset of an extremely narrow peak in the power spectrum of the system in the range of the kinetic phase transition is revealed.

© 1991 Optical Society of America