Performance of a hybrid bistable device using an acoustooptic modulator

Previous studies on acoustooptic hybrid bistable devices have been limited to the Bragg regime involving two diffracted orders, and no comparisons have been made between experimental results and theoretical predictions. In this paper, a model including both acoustooptic diffraction and a nonlinear feedback path is investigated. The Klein-Cook parameter Q has been brought into the investigation in that theoretical simulation results based on diffraction involving four diffracted orders are obtained. Experimental results are then presented and compared to theoretical predictions.