Phase diffusion in chaotic laser dynamics

Abstract

The role of phase dynamics in laser systems is investigated. A detailed analysis of a bidirectional ring laser shows that, besides a trivial shift of the average frequency, a diffusion originated by the chaotic motion can be detected. In this case, even if the evolution of the average phase is removed by a suitable change of reference, the fractal dimension of the attractor remains unchanged, at variance with the ordered motion, where the same choice would reduce the dimension by one.