Lyapunov exponent analysis of irregular fluctuations in a self-pumped BaTiO3 phase-conjugate mirror, establishing transition to chaotic behavior

Abstract

The behavior of the phase-conjugate output from a self-pumped, BaTiO3 phase-conjugate mirror is known to exhibit temporal instabilities under certain conditions. Approaches for investigating these experimentally observed fluctuations indicate the presence of chaotic behavior. However, a dynamic system that possesses one or more positive Lyapunov exponents is by definition chaotic. For the first time, to our knowledge, we calculate directly from experimental data the largest nonnegative Lyapunov exponent of these irregular fluctuations and report examples of definite transitions from stable to chaotic behavior.