Eur. Phys. J. Special Topics 226, 467-475 (2017)
https://doi.org/10.1140/epjst/e2016-60267-7

Regular Article

Periodic orbits and synchronous chaos in lasers unidirectionally coupled via saturable absorbers

¹ Department of Computer Science, Concordia University, 1455 boulevard de Maisonneuve O., Montréal, Québec H3G 1M8, Canada
² Instituto de Física, Benemérita Universidad Autónoma de Puebla, Apdo. Postal J-48, Puebla, Puebla 72570, Mexico

^a e-mail: doedel@cs.concordia.ca
^b e-mail: carlos@ifuap.buap.mx

Received: 12 September 2016
Revised: 30 November 2016
Published online: 6 March 2017

Abstract

We study a model for two unidirectionally coupled molecular lasers with a saturable absorber. Our numerical bifurcation study shows the existence of isolas of in-phase periodic solutions as physical parameters change. There are also other non-isola in-phase and intermediate-phase families of periodic oscillations. The coupling parameter strongly affects the stability of these periodic solutions. In this model the unstable periodic orbits belonging to the in-phase isolas constitute a skeleton of the attractor, when chaotic synchronization sets in for a set of physically relevant control parameters.