Garden of bifurcating paths in a nonlinear optical system

Abstract

We study both theoretically and experimentally the dynamical behavior of a Class B laser with modulated losses. We focus our attention on the response of the system as we sweep the modulation frequency. The nonlinearity of the system introduces a multistability of the laser intensity at resonance but also at subharmonics of the resonance and at harmonics of it. In general subharmonics and harmonics resonances in conjunction with low dissipation are at the origin of multistability in nonlinear dynamical systems. We show the response in intensity for low values of the modulation amplitude. We put in evidence the generation of harmonics of the modulation frequency at subharmonics resonances of the system. The experimental results are in very good agreement with the numerical results obtained from the most simple dynamical model for such type of lasers.