Bistability by Reflection at the Boundary of a Saturable uv Absorber

In recent years great efforts have been made to predict and obtain new bistable devices. We present here a theoretical analysis that indicates the possibility of a bistable behaviour in an extremely simple situation. Specifically, we show that the reflection of a normally incident plane monochromatic wave at the boundary of a saturable UV Absorber can display bistability. In this sense the “device” is the simplest one can imagine, consisting only of a homogeneous block of a saturable uv absorber with one surface polished. No mirrors are involved and one only requires the reflection of the incident wave at the polished boundary.