Optical regenerative oscillation and monostable pulse generation in electrooptic bistable devices

Optical regenerative oscillation is discussed theoretically and experimentally in three types of mirrorless bistable optical devices based on the electrooptic light modulator. The devices have two feedback signals proportional to the optical output power, and the oscillation condition and oscillation frequency depend on the time constants and conversion factors for two feedback voltages and biasing phase retardation in the light modulator. Analysis is done by treating the coupled differential equations for the time dependent feedback signals. The experimental results agree with the theoretical prediction. We show also that optical monostable pulses can be generated in the three types of bistable optical devices.