Abstract

The electromagnetic field in a laser cavity is usually treated as a scalar quantity. Laser models are usually invariant with respect to any rotation around the optical axis. This is a consequence of the approximate scalar treatment of the electromagnetic field and of the geometry of the systems described. The O₂ symmetry deriving from the scalar assumption has profound consequences on the bifurcation structure of the model’s solution: a primary symmetry breaking bifurcation of codimension one gives a solution with isotropy group D_n [1]. For example, a primary bifurcation could lead to a hexagonal pattern with D₆ symmetry [2].

© 1998 IEEE