Abstract

The optical bistable device has been shown to exhibit period doublings and chaos^1,2 and periodic windows,² while chaotic behavior was also reported for the response of a driven nonlinear oscillator^3-5 composed of a resistor, an inductor, and a varactor diode. We report an optical source displaying a sequence of chaotic scenarios, by simply using an infrared LED (NBC SE 301A) as the nonlinear element in a driven nonlinear oscillator. Based on experimental observation, a simple one-dimensional map is newly proposed to explain the observed chaotic sequence in the driven nonlinear oscillator.

© 1984 Optical Society of America