Hysteretic effects accompanying reflection of waves by absorbing media

A realistic model of a nonlinear medium allowing for linear and nonlinear absorption was used to determine the conditions for amplitude and phase bistability of a reflected wave field. The dependence of the phase hysteresis of the reflected wave on the dissipative properties of the boundary of the medium was analyzed. It was noted that these effects may be applied to control radiation fluxes and to monitor the parameters of the medium.