Travelling wave dynamics in a nonlinear interferometer with spatial field transformer in feedback

The properties of different spatial structures which emerge in a nonlinear resonator with a spatial transformer in a feedback are investigated. In det ail, we determine the parameter regions, the amplitudes and the rotation fr equency of various optical reverberators. Special emphasis is devoted to cr itical cases of infinite dimension which occur in a system with large geome trical size. Evolution equations obtained describe multistable travelling w aves, slowly rotating step structures, or modulated waves in dependence on the spatial shift in the feedback. Sensitive dependence of the phase space construction on geometrical size of the system is demonstrated even in the case of a large-scale system. (C) 1999 Elsevier Science B.V.