Experimental Evidence of Subharmonic Bifurcations, Multistability, and Turbulence in aQ-Switched Gas Laser

Abstract

Subharmonic bifurcations, generalized multistability, and chaotic behavior were found experimentally in a $Q$-switched C${\mathrm{O}}_2$ laser operating at 10.6 μm. Jumps between two strange attractors lead to a low-frequency ($\frac{1}{f}$ type) divergence in the power spectrum. This is the first experimental evidence of these phenomena in a quantum-optical molecular system. A theoretical model is also presented whose results are in good agreement with the experimental data.