Bistable transmission by a Fabry–Perot interferometer filled by a medium characterised by active and reactive nonlinearities

A phenomenological approach and the third-order nonlinear optical susceptibility are used in an analysis of the transmission of coherent light through a Fabry–Perot interferometer filled by a medium with active and reactive nonlinearities. The mean-field approximation is used to demonstrate analytically the feasibility of optical bistability. The conditions for appearance of this bistability are discussed.