PARAMETRIC PROCESSES AND MULTISTABILITY I N A RING CHIP LASER WITH PERIODIC PUMP MODULATION

The first detailed experimental and theoretical investigation is repor ted of the influence of periodic pump modulation on type 1 self-modula tion in a ring YAG:Nd chip laser pumped by a semiconductor laser diode . It is shown that the excitation of relaxation oscillations as a resu lt of parametric processes and direct resonant action of pump mo-dulat ion has a significant influence on the lasing regimes, on the tempo-ra l and spectral characteristics of the output radiation, and on the sce -nario of a transition to chaos. It is shown that for the same laser p arameters there may be two coexistent lasing regimes, including quasip eriodic operation of two types. The lasing regimes are classified and the ranges of their stability are investigated for varying modulation frequen-cy and depth.