Abstract

The aim of the paper is to study the modification in the steady state behaviour of a bistable Fabry-Perot when the angle of incidence, the width and/or the polarization of the beam, impinging on the system is changed. It can be easily shown that, according to the ratio of beam width and spotsize, several regimes of operation should be distinguished. In the two-beam regime (large spotsize or small angle of incidence), Miller's approach (1) can be generalised, leading to strikingly different transmission and reflection characteristics of the device, according to polarization and angle of incidence (Fig. 1a, 2a). These differences originate mainly from the modulation of the feedback mechanism by the latter parameters.

© 1988 Optical Society of America