Inhomogeneously broadened ring-cavity optical-bistability system with a Gaussian transverse intensity profile.

Abstract

The steady-state bistability and the evolution of the field envelope of a ring-cavity optical-bistable system including the effect of the transverse radiation field and the effect of an inhomogeneously broadened atomic medium are studied by means of the mean-field approximation and dressed-mode theory in this paper. Our study shows that the bistable region enlarges with an increase of the ratio ${\mathit{r}}_{0}$/${\mathit{w}}_{0}$ (${\mathit{r}}_{0}$ is the radius of the cylindrical atomic sample and ${\mathit{w}}_{0}$ the beam waist of the Gaussian beam), and decreases with increasing width of the inhomogeneously broadened line. The transverse-field effect has more impact on the magnitude of the bistable region than the inhomogeneous broadening under certain conditions. In the case of two unstable modes, the evolution of the field envelope before reaching the stable oscillation regime differs remarkably from that in the case of the plane-wave approximation with a homogeneously broadened atomic medium.