Spatiotemporal chaos induces extreme events in an extended microcavity laser

F Selmi (1) , Saliya Coulibaly (2) , Z Loghmari (1) , Isabelle Sagnes (1) , Gregoire Beaudoin (1) , Marcel G. Clerc (3) , Sylvain Barbay (1)

1 LPN - Laboratoire de photonique et de nanostructures
2 PhLAM - Laboratoire de Physique des Lasers, Atomes et Molécules - UMR 8523
3 DFI-FCFM - Departamento de Física, Facultad de Ciencias Físicas y Matemáticas

Extreme events such as rogue wave in optics and fluids are often associated with the merging dynamics of coherent structures. We present experimental and numerical results on the physics of extreme events appearance in a spatially extended semiconductor microcavity laser with intracavity saturable absorber. This system can display deterministic irregular dynamics only thanks to spatial coupling through diffraction of light. We have identified parameter regions where extreme events are encountered and established the origin of this dynamics in the emergence of deterministic spatiotemporal chaos, through the correspondence between the proportion of extreme events and the dimension of the strange attractor.

Mots clés: spatiotemporal chaos; q-switching; semiconductor laser; extreme events

Domaines: Dynamique Chaotique [nlin.CD]; Optique [physics.optics]

F Selmi, Saliya Coulibaly, Z Loghmari, Isabelle Sagnes, Gregoire Beaudoin, et al.. Spatiotemporal chaos induces extreme events in an extended microcavity laser. Physical Review Letters, 2016, 116 (1), pp.013901. ⟨10.1103/PhysRevLett.116.013901⟩. ⟨hal-01233500v3⟩