Nonlinear dynamics in single-mode optical resonators.

Abstract

A dynamical analysis of nonlinear optical resonators is performed in the framework of a single-mode formalism in the plane-wave regime, taking the finite response time of the nonlinear medium into account. We demonstrate that analytically solvable generic equations can be derived for the time evolution of the output intensity, in the two limiting cases where the medium's response time is either very large or very small as compared to the cavity buildup time. The stability picture and the characteristic time scales, important for applications in the field of optical information processing, are investigated analytically. This study reveals that a surprising effect may occur where an increase in the material-response time leads to a decrease of the relaxation time of the nonlinear device. This effect is called the speeding-up phenomenon. We also present a numerical study of the full nonlinear dynamics.