title: CO(2) laser with modulated losses: Theoretical models and experiments in the chaotic regime.
abstract: We compare two different theoretical models for a CO(2) laser, namely, the two- and four-level model, and show that the second one traces with much better accuracy the experimentally observed chaotic dynamics when the cavity losses are sinusoidally modulated. Even though the two-level model provides a qualitative explanation of the chaotic dynamics, only the four-level one assures a quantitative fitting. We also show that, at the onset of chaos, the chaotic dynamics is low dimensional and can be described in terms of a noninvertible one-dimensional map.
authors.affiliation: International Center for Theoretical Physics (I.C.T.P.), Strada Costiera 11, P.O. Box 586, Trieste, ItalyIstituto Nazionale di Ottica, Largo E. Fermi 6, 50125 Firenze, Italy.
authors.forename: C. L.
authors.initials: CL
authors.lastname: Pando L
authors.forename: R.
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Meucci
authors.forename: M.
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Ciofini
authors.forename: F. T.
authors.initials: FT
authors.lastname: Arecchi