Abstract

It is known that two-wave coupling in photorefractive crystal may result in an intensity-dependent phase shift as well as energy transfer between the two waves without phase crosstalk. In a sense, this kind of phase shift is similar to the intensity-dependent refractive-index effects in Kerr media. Consequently, optical bistability can be established in an optical cavity with a photorefractive crystal. We formulate the model and get the expected bistable transmission with numerical simulations. Several cases, including that of the codirectional coupling and the contradirectional coupling, are considered. The effects of the photorefractive crystal’s distribution absorption and the spatial phase shift between the index grating and the light interference pattern in the crystal on the nonlinear transmission characteristics have also been studied. It is interesting to note that the output of the pumping wave is dependent on the cavity intensity and thus shows bistable behavior with respect to the cavity input as well.

© 1987 Optical Society of America