Self-induced spatial disorder in a nonlinear optical system

Abstract

An optical ring cavity containing distributed nonlinear elements is proposed as a promising candidate for investigation of the dynamic stability of spatial disorder in a system far from thermal equilibrium. If the interaction between the elements is unidirectional, the stability of disordered structure can be determined by the spatial Lyapunov exponent. This fact implies that spatial disorder is frozen under quite restricted conditions, and most of the spatially disordered structure is replaced by spatiotemporal chaos. However, in the case of a bidirectional interaction, the spatial disorder is self-induced over a wide range of the control parameter.