This is a collection of papers presented at the Topical Meeting on Optical BistabiJity (OB3) held December 2-4,1985 in Tucson, Arizona. The increase in attendance to almost 200 shows that interest continues to grow in the sub­ ject of optical bistability (OB) and its wider implications both in application to "optical digital computing" and to basic physics, notably instabilities and spatial effects. The maturing of the field is evidenced by the fact that the number of experimental papers has caught up with the number of theoretical ones. These trends were already apparent in OB2 and the 1984 Royal Society Meeting on Optical Bistabilty, Dynamical Nonlinearity and Photonic Logic. Progress in experiment.al topics included guided-wave OB, mostly ther­ mal, picol'econd switching, studies on quite a number of new materials, op­ tical computing, and pattern recognition using arrays of nonlinear etalons. Theoretical progress ranged from rather practical calculations on device per­ formance, noise effects on switching, and transverse and longitudinal spatial effects to fundamental studies of dynamics, instabilities, and chaos. The Conference also included both theoretical ideas on optical computer archit.ecture and intrinsic OB circuit elements such as as full adder as well as t.he first demonstration of an intrinsic optical circuit in the form of a cas­ cadable loop with bufferd st.ores. A first demostration of a simple pattern recognition algorithm using 2-D arrays of spots on a ZnSe int.erference filter was reported.

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I Optical Circuitry and Computing.- Optical Bistability and the Digital Optical Computers.- Nonlinear Optical Associative Memories.- Demonstration of a Triple Bistable-Element Loop Circuit for a Digital Parallel All-Optical Computer.- All-Optical Computing - Circuit and Component Designs.- Threshold Device Tolerance Requirements in Digital Optical Computers.- Where Conventional Computing Will Be Ten Years from Now.- The European Joint Optical Bistability Project.- Optical Circuitry Cooperative (OCC).- Criteria for Polarized Optical Bistability.- II Optical Logic Gates and Parallel Processing.- Pulsed Optical Logic in GaAs Etalons.- Cascaded Bistable Optical Devices Based on Two-Photon Absorption in Room Temperature InSb.- Fabrication and Characterization of Arrays of GaAs All-Optical Logic Gates.- An Ultrafast GaAs All-Optical Logic Gate.- White Light Switching of Visible Nonlinear Interference Filters and Its Implications for the Design of a Spatial Light Modulator.- Gain-Bandwidth Product of an InSb Transphasor.- Dynamic Gain of an Optical Transistor.- Observation and Analysis of Critical Slowing Down in Nonlinear Visible Interference Filters.- Simultaneous Optical Bistable Switching of Adjacent Pixels on ZnS and ZnSe Interference Filters.- Advances in Optoelectronics.- Optical Limits to Parallel Processing in a Fabry-Perot Etalon.- Composite Logic Gate Element and Multiplexer for Optical Computing and Optical Communications.- III Nonlinear Guided Waves.- Properties of Nonlinear Surface Waveguides.- Nonlinear Guided-Wave Phenomena.- Bistable Optical Device Using Guided Mode Excitation in Silicon on Sapphire.- Light-Induced-Desorption: A New Mechanism for Bistability in Integrated Optical Devices.- Optical Waveguides in Bulk and Multiple-Quantum-Well Structures.- Intrinsic Optical Bistability in a Passive GaAIAs Waveguide.- Stability and Instability of Nonlinear Standing Waves in Planar Optical Waveguides.- Periodic Coupling in Dielectric/Semiconductor Guided-Wave Bistable Devices.- Nonlinear Waveguide Couplers.- Bistability and Self-Pulsing Using Input Couplers on Nonlinear Planar Waveguides.- Angle and Frequency Optical Bistability: Resonant Excitation of a Nonlinear Guided Mode.- Optical Bistability with Surface Plasmons Beyond Plane Waves in Nonlinear Dielectric.- IV Optical Bistability and Nonlinearity in Semiconductor and Other Materials.- Fast All-Optical Switching at Extremely Low Switching Energy in CdS Platelets.- Optical Nonlinearities of Glasses Doped with CdSxSe1?x.- Optical Bistability in CdS and Related Materials.- Pulse Shaping and Optical Bistability in CuCl Due to Nonlinear Dispersion and Absorption.- Bulk ZnSe: Linear Transmission to Damage Through Dispersive Bistability and Absorptive Switching.- Room-Temperature Optical Nonlinearities and Bistability in CdHgTe and CdTe.- Optical Bistability in PbSnSe at Room-Temperature with Infrared Radiation at Milliwatt Powers.- Liquid Crystals as Nonlinear Optical Materials.- The Photorefractive Effect for Optical Processing.- Large Third Order Nonlinear Optical Susceptibilities in Organic Materials.- Room-Temperature Optical Nonlinearity of Wide-Gap II-VI Compounds.- Laser-Induced Distortion of Nematic Liquid Crystal Films and Observation of Cavityless Optical Bistability Due to Thermal Effects.- Optical Nonlinearity and Resonant Bistability in Organic Photochromic Thin Films.- Polarization Instability and Bistability in Birefringent Nonlinear Media.- Optical Bistability in 1. 55p,m Semiconductor Laser Amplifiers.- Nonlinear Semiconductor Laser Amplifiers as Low-Energy Optical Switches.- Models for Absorption-Induced Optical Bistability in CdS and Multiple Quantum Well GaAs.- V Transverse and Longitudinal Effects.- Longitudinal Effects in Increasing Absorption Optical Bistability.- Measurement of Transverse Coupling Between Adjacent InSb Optical Switching Elements.- Diffusion Effects in Bistable Optical Arrays.- Cross-Trapping Optical Bistability of Two Counter-Propagating Beams in Sodium Vapor.- VI Fundamental Aspects and New Schemes.- Noise Effects in Dispersive Optical Bistability.- Effects of Holding-Field Noise on Optical Switching.- Theory of Transient Optical Bimodality.- Experimental Studies of Fluctuations in Transient Optical Bistability.- Quantum Statistics of Small Bistable Systems.- Control of ?+ Beam Propagation by a ?? Beam.- Magnetic Control of Polarization Switching.- Optical Bistability Experiments Using Samarium Vapor.- Quantum "Optical" Bistability with Rydberg Na Atoms.- Multiphoton Excitation of Relativistic Cyclotron Resonance and Phase Bistability.- A Heuristic Stochastic Model of Mirrorless Optical Bistability.- Optical Constants of Multiple Quantum Well Structures.- Bistability in Intracavity Resonant Degenerate 4-Wave Mixing in Na Vapor.- Width of OB Switching Time Distribution.- Ring Pattern of Laser-Induced Thermal Self-Defocusing.- Optical Bistability in Two-Beam Interferometric Devices with In-Phase Outputs.- Optical Multistability in a Four-Level System Interacting with Two Fields.- Generation of Squeezed States in Optical Bistability.- Bistability by Reflection at the Boundary of a Saturable Absorber.- VII Instability and Chaos.- Ergodic Theory of Chaos.- Instabilities in Dispersive OB on the Low Transmission Branch.- Measurement of Dimension of Chaos in Optical Bistability.- Quasiperiodic Route to Chaos in Self-Pulsing Semiconductor Lasers Under Large Signal Current Modulation.- Optical Bistability and Instabilities Due to Mode-Mode Competition in a Homogeneously Broadened Ring Laser.- Instabilities in a Self-Pumped Barium Titanate Phase Conjugate Mirror.- Instabilities in the Propagation of Arbitrarily Polarized Counterpropagating Waves in a Nonlinear Kerr Medium.- Influence of Cavity Properties on the Interpretation of Experimental Results in Bistability.- Optical Bistability with Two-State Atoms: Steady States and Dynamical Instabilities.- Characterization of a Strange Attractor in an Optical System.- Coherence and Chaos in Passive Nonlinear Optical Systems.- Period Doubling and Intermittency in the Transmission of a Na Vapor-Filled Fabry-Perot.- Instability Condition and Frequency-Locking in Hybrid Optical Bistability.- Transverse Optical Bistability and Instabilities.- Instabilities of a Semiconductor with Induced Absorption in a Ring Resonator.- Optical Multistability and Oscillations in Hybrid Optical Bistable Systems …