Critical slowing down in an optical bistable model with Kerr-nonlinear blackbody reservoir

We investigate switching response for an Optical Bistable (OB) device consisting of homogeneously broadened two-level atoms in a ring cavity supported by a Kerr Nonlinear Blackbody (KNB) radiation reservoir in the high-Q cavity regime for both absorptive and dispersive cases. In the resonant case and below a transition temperature, faster switching processes for OB devices with KNB can be triggered by a small perturbation of the incident field in the vicinity of the critical transition point. The switching time increases with increasing atomic detuning parameter. A thermal switching process is obtained for a fixed incident field and is triggered by small perturbation in the relative reservoir temperature, Tb say. The switching time is reduced considerably by slightly increasing the temperature Tb. Comparison with other cases of radiation reservoir is made, namely, normal, thermal and squeezed vacuum.