Transition to chaos in a laser system with delayed feedback

Abstract

The transition from quasiperiodicity to chaos in an NMR laser with delayed feedback is investigated both experimentally and numerically. We concentrate on the low-delay-time region where stable tori arise either from a sequence of two Hopf bifurcations or from an ``interaction'' between mutually transversal unstable limit cycles. Transitions to chaos via intermittency and crises have been observed, as well as the ``fractalization'' of tori.