Chaos and generalized multistability in quantum optics

Year: 1985

Authors: Arecchi F.T.

Autors Affiliation: Istituto Nazionale di Ottica, Largo E. Fermi 6, 50125 Firenze, Italy
Department of Physics, University of Firenze, 50125 Firenze, Italy

Abstract: A challenging problem in non-equilibrium statistical mechanics is that regarding the insurgence of ordered structures starting from a chaotic (maximum entropy) condition, in a system strongly perturbed at its boundary as a quantum optical system. For still higher perturbations, the ordered stuctures become more and more complex, until reaching deterministic chaos. Three experimental situations for CO2 lasers (a laser with modulated losses, a ring laser with competition between forward and backward waves, and a laser with injected signal) are analyzed as examples of the onset of chaos in systems with a homogeneous gain line and with a particular time scale imposed by the values of the relaxation constants. I stress the coexistence of several basins of attraction (generalized multistability) and their coupling by external noisse. This coupling induces a low frequency branch in the power spectrum. Comparison is made between the spectra of noise-induced jumps over independent attractors and that of deterministic diffusion within subregions of the same attractor. At the borderline between the two classes of phenomena a scaling law holds, relating the control parameter and the external noise in their effect on the mean escape time from a given stability region.

Journal/Review: PHYSICA SCRIPTA

Volume: T9      Pages from: 85  to: 92

KeyWords: chaos; laser outputs; laser stability

Citations: 12
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