Nonstationary chaotic oscillations in lasers with frequency-shifted feedback

Nonlinear dynamics of a self-mixing thin-slice solid-state laser subjected to Doppler-shifted optical feedback

Chaotic oscillations of a linearly polarized single longitudinal-mode thin-slice Nd:GdVO_{4} laser placed in a self-mixing laser Doppler velocity scheme were dynamically characterized in terms of the intensity probability distribution, joint time-frequency analysis, and short-term Fourier transformation of temporal evolutions, and the degree of disorder in the amplitude and phase of the long-term temporal evolutions. The transition from chaotic relaxation oscillations (ROs) to chaotic spiking oscillations (SOs) was explored via the chaotic itinerancy (CI) regime by increasing the feedback ratio toward the laser from a rotating scattering object. The intensity probability distribution was found to change from an exponential decay in the RO regime to an inverse power law in the SO regime, which manifests itself in self-organized critical behavior, while stochastic subharmonic frequency locking among the two periodicities of RO and SO takes place in the CI regime featuring quantum-noise (spontaneous-emission)-induced order in the amplitude and phase of the spiking oscillations. All of the experimental results were reproduced by numerical simulations of a model equation of a single-mode self-mixing solid-state laser subjected to Doppler-shifted optical feedback from a rotating scattering object.

Chaotic oscillations associated with the breakup of polarization entangled coherent states in a microchip solid-state laser

We demonstrate the breakup of spatial-polarization entangled lasing patterns, which possess vector phase singularities, and the resultant dynamic instabilities featuring chaotic oscillations. The frequency splitting between a pair of Ince-Gauss (IG) lasing modes, originally forming a coherent entanglement state, and a self-excited additional nonorthogonal IG mode through a new class of transverse effect of self-injection pattern seeding, is shown to result in modal-interference-induced modulation at the beat frequency, leading to chaotic oscillations.

Dynamical characterization of chaotic itinerancy in a three-mode laser subjected to frequency-shifted optical feedback

We investigated chaotic dynamics in a microchip three-mode solid-state laser subjected to frequency-shifted optical feedback. When the frequency shift was tuned to harmonic frequencies of the relaxation oscillation, a bifurcation from a periodic sustained relaxation oscillation ("soft-mode") state to a chaotic spiking ("hard-mode") state via a chaotic itinerancy was observed as the feedback intensity was increased. Dynamic characterizations of modal interplay and self-induced switching between the soft- and hard-mode chaotic states over times (i.e., chaotic itinerancy) were carried out by the information circulation analysis and joint time-frequency analysis of long-term experimental time series. Drastic changes in information transfer rates among oscillating modes and occasional frequency locking among periodicities of two chaotic states associated with switchings were identified in chaotic itinerancy. Essential dynamical behaviors were reproduced by numerical simulation.

Real-time nanometer-vibration measurement with a self-mixing microchip solid-state laser

Nanometer vibration analysis of a target has been demonstrated by a self-aligned optical feedback vibrometry technique that uses a laser-diode-pumped microchip solid-state laser. The laser output waveform, which was modulated through interference between a lasing field and an extremely weak (<- 100-dB) frequency-modulated (FM) feedback field, was analyzed by the Hilbert transformation to yield the vibration waveform of the target. Experimental signal characteristics have been reproduced by numerical simulations. Real-time vibration measurement has also been achieved with a simple FM demodulation circuit.