NONLINEAR DYNAMICS IN SINGLE-MODE OPTICAL RESONATORS

A dynamical analysis of nonlinear optical resonators is performed in t he framework of a single-mode formalism in the plane-wave regime, taki ng the finite response time of the nonlinear medium into account. We d emonstrate that analytically solvable generic equations can be derived for the time evolution of the output intensity, in the two limiting c ases where the medium's response time is either very large or very sma ll as compared to the cavity buildup time. The stability picture and t he characteristic time scales, important for applications in the field of optical information processing, are investigated analytically. Thi s study reveals that a surprising effect may occur where an increase i n the material-response time leads to a decrease of the relaxation tim e of the nonlinear device. This effect is called the speeding-up pheno menon. We also present a numerical study of the full nonlinear dynamic s.