Inhomogeneous Broadening Effects on Optical Bistability with Kerr-nonlinear Blackbody Reservoir
Yasser A. Sharaby
In this paper we examine the optical bistability (OB) phenomenon with inhomogeneously broadened two-level atomic medium interacting with a single mode of the ring cavity in the presence of a Kerrnon linear blackbody (KNB) radiation reservoir. Inhomogeneous broadening is accounted for in the general case as a combined Lorentzian and Gaussian broadenings introduced in the form of Voigt lineshape, in both absorptive and dispersive cases. Of specific interest, temperature-induced OB is obtained at a lower input coherent field and over a larger interval of the relative reservoir temperature, as compared with the homogeneously broadened case.
Keywords: Optical bistability, inhomogeneous broadening, Voigt linewidth, thermal switching.