Effect of the beam ellipticity on the formation of high-absorption domains in multilayered systems

Abstract

Formation of high-absorption domains in a multilayered structure is studied by the example of a bistable system based on the light absorption by vibrational transitions of molecules. The structure consists of a sequence of nonlinearly absorbing and transparent layers. It is shown that elliptical beams give rise to longitudinal multidomain structures in a multilayered system; these structures are formed in a rather wide range of interaction parameters.