Thermally induced optical bistability and self-oscillation in a nonlinear etalon filled with optical adhesive

Abstract

We report the optical bistability and the self-oscillation of a nonlinear Fabry–Perot etalon filled with Norland optical adhesive 81. A normal and an inverted bistable loop were observed for a short (80msec) and a long (1.2sec) input optical pulse duration, respectively. The self-oscillation properties depended sensitively on the substrate and the spacer thicknesses. The measured self-oscillation period became longer with an increase of the spacer thickness and was in the range o 0.2 to 3 seconds. The inversion of the bistable loop, and the self-oscillation in this experiment can be explained by the competition between the fast thermal refractive index change and the slow linear thermal expansion of the etalon.