Thermally induced optical bistability in Cr-doped Colquiriite crystals

Abstract

We have shown that a very strong nonlinearity in the temperature dependence of the luminescence quantum yield in Cr-doped laser crystals of the Colquiriite family can lead to a temperature induced intrinsic optical bistability in these materials. The bistability and the hysteresis loop in the dependence of Cr luminescence intensity and transmission of the crystal on cw pumping power has been theoretically predicted and experimentally observed. The experimental results are in a good qualitative and quantitative agreement with the theoretical prediction.