Abstract

Recent interest has focussed on the subject of mirrorless optical bistability, the simplest system showing bistability theoretically is a system of N ≥ 2 atoms. Microscopic theory is derived from quantum theory by a factorization of binary products of operators. There are strong inter atomic interactions in the bistable regime, it is unlikely that these factorizations are valid. Quantum calculations that avoid factorization imply that bistability does not exist. Hence in the previous bistability conference there was skepticism that bistability could really occur in a mirrorless system with only a few atoms.

© 1985 Optical Society of America