Abstract

Recently, studies of collective dynamics of multi-mode lasers have attracted great interest. A characteristic of multi-mode lasers in comparison with single mode lasers is that several modes coexist and under strong coupling between the modes, self-organised states can be spontaneously formed, which manifest different kinds of collective dynamics. Typical collective dynamics of multimode lasers are e.g. antiphase dynamics, and cooperative frequency locking. In this paper we report on experimental studies of the collective dynamics of an optically pumped bidirectional ring laser (the simplest case of multi-mode operation of this laser). We show that under the nonlinear interaction between the forward and the backward modes of the laser, the laser can show strong antiphase dynamics. In particular we demonstrate that even under the chaotic laser mode-mode interaction, the laser can show spontaneous self-organisation as well. Spontaneous chaotic synchronisation of the laser mode dynamics was also observed in the laser under a particular experimental condition.

© 1996 IEEE