Phase control of amplitude-fluctuation-induced bistability

Abstract

We present phase control of the fluctuation-induced bistability in the three-level A-type system where a weak, amplitude-fluctuating component and a strong coherent component are used as a control field. With the addition of the stochastic component, optical bistability can be produced even if detunings of the probe and control fields from corresponding atomic transition frequencies are equal; without the addition, the medium is transparent to the input light. Depending on the relative phase between the stochastic and coherent parts, bistability appears or disappears and the threshold intensity is raised or lowered.