Abstract

A basic pattern formation mechanism in hydrodynamics known as Faraday instability [1] is shown to appear in a periodically modulated multimode laser system exhibiting a strong inhomogeneous broadening. Specifically, we show theoretically and experimentally that stationary waves are excited parametrically and wavenumbers are selected by the dispersion curve of the medium. The bifurcation resulting from this instability is revealed by a multiple scale analysis of the multimode laser model [2] and is confirmed experimentally using a Nd-doped fiber laser.

© 1998 IEEE