Abstract

From a statistical viewpoint, the signature of optical bistability is the two-peaked character of its stationary probability distribution. However, the exceedingly long lifetime of the two metastable states makes the experimental observation very difficult. We recently showed (1) that the critical slowing down can produce the emergence of a double-peaked distribution during the transient, with a scenario that is accessible to experimental observation, a goal that has been brilliantly achieved by the Hannover group (2) using optically pumped sodium vapour. This phenomenon, called transient bimodality, is universal in the sense that it arises in all systems that, at a deterministic level, exhibit a long induction stage followed by a fast switching to the steady state (3). And, in fact, the Hannover team observed this phenomenon also in an electronic system (4).

© 1985 Optical Society of America