Abstract

We studied the dynamic behavior of a hybrid bistable system with a delay in the feedback loop when the input intensity undergoes a simple sinusoidal modulation. We found that when a small modulated input is applied to a stable steady state, the output intensity oscillates with the modulation frequency ω, the amplitude of the oscillating output has a resonant structure as a function of ω, and the maximum response develops when the driving frequency coincides with the imaginary part of the linearized eigenvalue that has the largest real part. When the parameters of the system correspond to an unstable state, the injection of a modulated input makes the output oscillation frequency different, in general, from the driving frequency, except when it approaches the fundamental frequency; here the output intensity becomes frequency locked to the input signal. In the frequency-locked region, for increasing values of modulation depth the output intensity undergoes a series of period doubling bifurcations up to chaos.

© 1986 Optical Society of America