Time-dependent fluctuations and phase hysteresis in dispersive bistability

Abstract
Dispersive optical bistability with fluctuations is analyzed in the mean-field approximation. It is shown that the phase shift of the transmitted field in the purely dispersive case exhibits hysteresis and bistable behavior in a manner similar to that of the transmitted intensity. The Fokker-Planck equation describing the time evolution of the quasiprobability distribution for the transmitted-field amplitude is obtained. The time-dependent moments of the transmitted light are calculated with the use of a Monte Carlo integration scheme.