Homogeneous solutions for elliptically polarized light in a cavity containing materials with electric and magnetic nonlinearities

Abstract

We study evolution equations and stationary homogeneous solutions for electric and magnetic field amplitudes in a ring cavity with flat mirrors. The cavity is filled with a positive or negative refraction index material with third order Kerr-like electric nonlinearities and also magnetic nonlinearities, which can be relevant in metamaterials. We consider the degree of freedom of polarization in the incident beam. It is found that considering a magnetic nonlinearity increases the variety of possible qualitatively different solutions. A classification of solutions is proposed in terms of the number of bifurcations. The analysis can be useful for the implementation of optical switching or memory storage using ring cavities with non linear materials.