Experimental suppression of chaos in a modulated multimode laser

Suppressing chaotic behavior by addition of a weak second periodic perturbation signal, which is nearly resonant to a subharmonic of the fundamental system frequency, is observed in a modulated microchip LiNdP4O12 multimode laser by a highly sensitive self-mixing modulation technique. The stabilization of the unstable period-2 orbit embedded in a chaotic attractor is demonstrated in a wide parameter region. The chaos-suppressing experiments are well reproduced by simulations of globally coupled modulated Tang-Statz-deMars [J. Appl. Phys. 34, 8289 (1963)] multimode laser equations, including a spatial hole-burning effect. (C) 1997 Optical Society of America.