Transverse oscillation arising from spatial soliton formation in nonlinearoptical cavities

A new type of transverse instability in dispersively nonlinear optical cavi ties, called the optical whistle, is discussed. This instability occurs in the mean-field, soliton-forming limit when the cavity is driven with a fini te width Gaussian beam, and gives rise to oscillation, period doubling, and chaos. It is also seen that bistability is strongly affected due to the os cillation within the upper transmission branch. The phenomenon is interpret ed as a mode mismatch in the soliton-formation process and is believed to h ave broad applicability. [S1050-2947(99)01305-0].