Switching waves in a multistable interferometer: widths of fronts, interaction of waves, potential applications

Theoretical and experimental investigations were made of the dependences of the widths of the fronts of switching waves in a multistable semiconductor interferometer with a thermal nonlinearity on different parameters. The results are reported of experimental observations of simultaneous propagation of two switching waves between different pairs of stable states and of their interaction with one another. A possible influence of the switching waves on the operation of nonlinear interferometers used as multichannel memory devices is considered. The potential applications of such waves for the modification of the characteristics of laser radiation and for optical data processing are also discussed.