ANALYSIS OF THE OPTICAL MULTISTABILITY BEHAVIOR IN A FOUR-LEVEL ATOMIC SYSTEM WITH AN ASSISTING MICROWAVE-DRIVEN FIELD

Abstract

We show the steady-state optical multistability (OM) behavior in a four-level atomic system inside a unidirectional ring cavity. We find that the intensity and the detunings of the fields can affect the optical multistability behavior dramatically, which can be used to control the transition from OM to OB or vice versa without the need to resort to the effect of spontaneously generated coherence (SGC). The effect of the atomic cooperation parameter on OM is also studied. Our scheme may be used for building more efficient all-optical switches and logic-gate devices for optical computing and quantum information processing.