Abstract
In this paper we describe experimental observations which demonstrate that multi-stability and chaotic instabilities can occur in cavity-less nonlinear optical systems. In particular, we have experimentally investigated the stability characteristics of near-resonant laser beams counterpropagating through sodium vapor. We observe multistability in the states of polarization of the transmitted laser beams for the case of moderately strong nonlinear coupling and observe chaotic fluctuations in the polarizations for the case of larger nonlinear coupling (i.e. for larger atomic number densities or for larger laser intensities). These obserÂvations confirm the predictions that chaotic fluctuations1 and bistability2,3 can occur in the absence of external feedback, solely through the interaction of two beams of light.
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© 1990 Plenum Press, New York
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Gauthier, D.J., Malcuit, M.S., Boyd, R.W. (1990). Bistability and Chaos in Counterpropagating Laser Beams. In: Eberly, J.H., Mandel, L., Wolf, E. (eds) Coherence and Quantum Optics VI. Springer, Boston, MA. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4613-0847-8_72
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4613-0847-8_72
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