F. T. Arecchi

Vortices and defect statistics in two-dimensional optical chaos

We present the first direct experimental evidence of topological defects in nonlinear optics. For increasing Fresnel numbers F, the two-dimensional field is characterized by an ...

Experimental evidence of chaotic itinerancy and spatiotemporal chaos in optics

By increasing the Fresnel number F of a ring cavity with photorefractive gain, we show the transition between a low-F regime, where a few modes compete with a periodic alternati...

Space-time complexity in nonlinear optics

Theory of phase locking of globally coupled laser arrays

We have carried out an investigation of the globally coupled laser array with randomly spread eigenfrequencies. It is shown that as this spread increases, either the laser actio...