BISTABLE OPTICAL ELEMENT AND ITS APPLICATIONS

Abstract

Optical resonators containing saturable absorbers (saturable resonators) have nonlinear characteristics and can exhibit hysteresis. This is demonstrated experimentally at 10.6 μ wavelength. A saturable resonator is used to switch out the CO2 laser light from its cavity and for repetitive Q-switching. Devices are described to obtain variable length pulses, infinite pulse trains, logical operations on two signals, and memory functions.