Recoil-induced effects in passive and active atomic systems

A theoretical analysis of absorptive optical bistability in a passive atomi c medium and bidirectional lasing in an active atomic medium is presented. The atomic medium consists of a collection of cold two-level atoms and the atom-radiation field interaction is described using a one-dimensional semic lassical model. It is shown that when the effects of atomic recoil are incl uded self-consistently, the interaction between the atoms and the radiation can be changed significantly from that when the effects of atomic recoil a re neglected. (C) 2000 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.