BIFURCATION-ANALYSIS OF LASER AUTOSOLITONS

An investigation is reported of one-dimensional stationary localised r adiation structures ('laser autosolitons'), which appear in a wide-ape rture laser with a saturable absorber under conditions of hard lasing excitation. Bifurcation theory methods are used to find the range of e xistence of single autosolitons and of their coupled states. It is sho wn that such structures correspond to a transverse dependence of the f ield amplitude which is either symmetric and node-free or antisymmetri c and has a single node. An infinite set of single autosolitons with v arious widths and transverse amplitude profiles is predicted. It is sh own that there is an infinite set of 'two-soliton' structures differin g in respect of the distance between the component autosolitons.