Chaos in Optical Systems

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Optical Chaos is observed in many non-linear optical systems. One of the most common examples is a ring resonator.

One of the most seminal works is published by Ikeda (Physical Review Letters, 1982) where chaotic behavior in a ring resonator was proposed and experiementally confirmed.

Optical Chaos was an exciting field of research in mid-1980s and was expected at that time to lead to production of All optical devices including All optical computers. Researchers realised later the inherent limitation of the optical systems due to the nonlocalised nature of photons compared to highly localised nature of electrons.

Research in Optical Chaos has seen a recent resurgence in the context of studying synchronization phenomena, and in developing techniques for secure optical communications.