Abstract
A new general method of obtaining an bistable optical response, which makes use of a change in the optical properties of the medium induced by a first order phase transition, is investigated. The properties of this type of optical bistability are found to be substantially dependent on the assumptions concerning the role of metastable states in the phase transition. Possible steady-state regimes are analyzed, and universal expressions are derived for the figures of merit describing the bistable response in the vicinity of a critical point of the phase transition.
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