Abstract

Butterfly bistability has been observed previously in various systems. In a bistable etalon with a metallic absorbing mirror, the relative phase shift between the reflected and transmitted beams leads to a butterfly response.¹ Furthermore, an absorption which increases with increasing power has also been shown to lead to bistability.² Most recently in a guided wave experiment, it has been observed and interpreted to arise from the reduction in the width of the air gap during the coupling process.³ Here we report a novel form of butterfly bistability which can in special conditions be produced in the throughput of a waveguide with grating input and output couplers.

© 1990 Optical Society of America