Instability of electromagnetic waves in bistable media

V. V. Kabanov, Alexander S. Rubanov, Alexei L. Tolstik +1 more

Tatiana I. Kuznetsova

Steve Stuut, Murray Sargent

The effects of Gaussian-beam averaging with various apertures are derived for three-wave mixing in nonlinear two-level media. The model studies the phase transition from plane-wave to pure Gaussian saturation. Applications to phase conjugation, beat-frequency spectroscopy, and laser–optical-bistability instability phenomena are considered. The Gaussian beams are seen to reduce or wash out dynamic Stark splittings observed for plane-wave saturation. For strong saturation, the side-mode gain/absorption coefficient versus detuning yields slightly larger gain for the homogeneously broadened laser instability but substantially curtailed gain for the corresponding absorptive optical-bistability instability.

Hari Prakash, G. S. Bhatnagar

N. B. Abraham, F. T. Arecchi, Luigi A. Lugiato

The following topics are considered: laser and maser instabilities, classical and quantum noise, transverse effects, dynamics in optical bistability and nonlinear optical media, and methods of analysis in nonlinear dynamics. Particular papers are presented on multistability and chaos in a two-photon microscopic maser, quantum chaos in quantum optics, spatial chaos in bistable optical arrays, four-wave mixing and dynamics, and bifurcation problems in nonlinear optics.

Daniel F. Walls, P. D. Drummond, K. J. McNeil