Fluctuations, instabilities and chaos in the laser-driven nonlinear ring cavity

Far-from-equilibrium phenomena have recently been considered in physics, chemistry, engineering, and even the social sciences. Particular attention has been given to the bifurcation of steady states, the growth of fluctuations, the onset of chaos, and the appearance of temporal-spatial structure. Such phenomena are fundamentally nonlinear. Many of the considered properties are exhibited by the laser-like systems of modern optics. The ring cavity with a nonlinear medium shows the universal approach to chaotic behavior. The present investigation is concerned with this system. The dynamics and the steady-state response of the driven ring cavity are discussed along with the onset of instability of the stationary states. Attention is given to aspects of bistable operation and deterministic switching, noise-driven transitions for bistable operation, and higher-order instabilities and the transition to chaos.