Abstract

The CO₂ laser with a saturable absorber (LSA) generates the continuous pulse sequence which is well known as a passive Q-switching (PQS). Single pulse consists a narrow peak with the long oscillating tail. The pulse length and its shape essentially depends from a choice of the absorbing media and its parameters The occurrence of chaos in this system has been demonstrated by the experimental and theoretical investigations. Chaos arises according one of the famous scenarios. The theoretical model adequately describing the dynamical characteristics consists of the five differential equations for the field, polarizations and population differences of the amplifying and absorbing cells [1]. In this model LSA has three fixed points corresponding to the trivial laser-off solution and stationary solution. As the recent investigations showed [2,3] depending on the nature of the instability of these points different temporal regimes can arises.

© 1992 Optical Society of America