Unveiling the relationship between optical bistability and vacuum Rabi splitting

The relationship between optical bistability (OB) and vacuum Rabi splitting is experimentally demonstrated in an atomic ensemble confined in a three-mirror optical cavity. The vacuum-induced splitting and bright states can effectively affect the bistable behaviour by manipulating multiple parameters such as atomic density and detuning. Also, we observed another kind of "∞"-shape OB by scanning the probe/cavity detuning. The study can make a contribution to better understand the OB and other dynamical behaviours in a composite atom-cavity system.