Improvement of signal-to-noise ratio in a bistable optical system: Comparison between vibrational and stochastic resonance

We present an experimental and theoretical study of the effect of additive noise on the signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) in a bistable, vertical cavity laser. We show that, the regime of vibrational resonance leads to higher SNR’s than the regime of stochastic resonance. A scaling law for the noise-induced degradation of SNR is obtained analytically and compared with experimental and numerical results, showing a good agreement.