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.