We study the response of a hybrid bistable system with a delay in the feedback loop when the input intensity is modulated sinusoidally. As predicted in an earlier publication [J.Y. Gao and L.M. Narducci, Optics Comm. 58 (1986) 360], our experiments confirm the appearance of resonance phenomena, frequency locking and period doubling bifurcations upon varying the parameters of the modulation and the operating conditions of the hybrid device.

e demonstrate a range of locking regimes of a self-pulsing bistable hybrid electro-optic device when the input light is modulated. In the larger locking windows we are able to clearly follow the phase shift between the frequency-locked response and the driving frequency. A related phase shift is observed in the "frustrated switching" of the bistable device (in the absence of selfpulsing) as the modulation frequency of the input light is lowered to the critical value.

We study the dynamical response of a hybrid bistable system with a delay in the feedback loop when the input intensity undergoes a simple sinusoidal modulation. As a function of the driving frequency and modulation depth, we predict the appearance of frequency-locking phenomena and period-doubling bifurcations into chaos.

Two methods of chaos control in a dynamic storage device which has been realized in an electro-optical bistable system pumped by a He-Ne laser are proposed. Experimental result agrees with the theoretical simulations and the Lyapunov exponent analysis. Up to 55 bits binary data storage have been successfully demonstrated.

We analyze the instability conditions for the Ikeda model of a hybrid bistable system and study its behavior in a regime where the delay time of the feedback loop is comparable to or even smaller than the system's response time. The asymptotic behavior of the self-pulsing amplitude and of the critical slowing down in the vicinity of the instability threshold is consistent with that of other unstable systems described by a finite set of differential equations.