CHAOS VIA PERIOD-DOUBLING OSCILLATIONS IN AN EXCITON CARRIER PHOTON SYSTEM DRIVEN BY OPTICAL-PUMPING

A detailed stability analysis is performed for a highly excited semico nductor modelled as an exciton-electron-hole-photon system driven exte rnally by optical pumping. Chaotic self-pulsations are shown to occur on both the upper and lower branches of the bistable steady state curv e of the system via a sequence of period-doubling oscillation process. Such a route to chaos is well known in laser physics and in other non linear systems but not in highly excited semiconductors yet.