Hybrid Acousto-Optical Bistability in the Second-Order Bragg Regime

Over the past decade, research with acoustooptic hybrid bistable devices has been primarily concerned with operation in the first Bragg regime involving two to four diffracted orders. In this paper, a model that includes both acoustooptic diffraction and nonlinear feedback will be used to investigate optical bistability in the second Bragg regime. In addition, theoretical simulations will be used to compare this system with an identical system operating in the first Bragg regime. Theoretical and experimental results will be presented.