Optical bistability in the presence of spatial dispersion

We calculate the response of a Fabry-Perot etalon containing a nonlinear excitonic medium in the presence of spatial dispersion. The nonlinearity is taken to be that of the polariton density-dependent collision broadening of the exciton resonance. The effect of spatial dispersion on optical bistability in reflection is investigated theoretically in a CdSe etalon with a high-reflectivity back mirror.