Localized Structures in Dissipative Nonlinear Systems - Abstract
Barland, Stephane
Excitability is a well known feature of several kinds of nonlinear dynamical systems, including optical ones. In particular, the excitable character of a laser with saturable absorber has been demonstrated both theoretically and experimentally in absence of any spatial degree of freedom. On the other hand, a laser with saturable absorber with sufficiently high transverse extension is known to support the formation of localized structures. But even if excitability mediated by localized structures has been observed numerically in a model of a dissipative (Kerr) nonlinear optical cavity, no experimental observation of optical excitable localized states has been reported to date. We therefore explore the possibility of generating excitable localized states in an experimental system consisting of two coupled semiconductor lasers in an absorber-amplifier configuration.