Abstract

The study of transient oscillations in Nd³⁺-doped fiber lasers shows that a chaotic spiking is obtained either for high pumping rates and/or at low temperatures. An improved laser model is proposed to understand this irregular behaviour. Using a multimode formalism, we show that a small homogeneous to inhomogeneous linewidths ratio leads to a strongly irregular spiking. The spectra of the laser emission reveal then a high number of active cavity modes.

© 1991 Optical Society of America