Optical bistability at two-wave action of light on a molecular gas

An optically bistable two-wave scheme implemented upon absorption of light energy by a molecular gas is proposed. Switching from one state into another is performed by a pulse at one of the two frequency. At the same time, the medium is continuously exposed to light of another frequency. It is shown that, under certain conditions, the system switched to the upper state remains in this state for an arbitrarily long time. This effect makes it possible to implement long-term dynamic memory and logical operations. A two-wave action on a molecular gas also decreases several tens or hundreds of times the intensities necessary for switching a system from one state to another.