Transverse dynamics in nonlinear optical media

Mark J. Ablowitz, Yuji Kodama

L. A. Lugiato, Wang Kaige, N. B. Abraham

We discuss instabilities of the fundamental single-transverse-mode solution and the formation of new transverse spatial patterns in optical systems, containing nonlinearly absorbing two-level media using two transverse cavity geometries (rectangular and cylindrical). Under the appropriate approximations, these two models can be described by the same set of dynamical equations. Though the equations for the two models differ in their coefficients, their dynamical solutions are comparable. We find hysteresis phenomena associated with transitions in the transverse structure of the intensity which are completely different from the steady-state bistability and hysteresis found in theories of single-mode operation.

N. B. Abraham, E. Arimondo, Robert W. Boyd

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.

Tatsuo Yajima, Yoichi Taira

The dynamical properties of a third-order nonlinear optical process, in which two incident light pulses with wave vectors k 1 and k 2 generate a light wave with 2 k 2 - k 1 in resonant media, are discussed with particular attention to the effect of transverse relaxation time T 2 . It is shown that the correlation trace (output light energy vs incident pulse separation) for this process provides a general means of obtaining information on ultrashort T 2 for both the homogeneously and inhomogeneously broadened transitions, and for both t p (pulse width)< T 2 and t p > T 2 . An experimental demonstration for t p > T 2 is given by using a dye molecule and a picosecond light source.