Noise-driven instabilities in systems exhibiting pulse formation via passive mode-locking
Abstract
We consider the stability and control of systems exhibiting pulse formation via passive mode-locking. Such pulse formation arises due to the combined effects of a spatially localized saturable gain region, cavity resonance effects that provide a mode selection mechanism, saturable absorption, and dispersion. Spontaneous pulse formation is exploited, for example, in the Colliding Pulse Mode-locked (CPM) laser which can generate ultra-fast sub-picosecond optical pulses. This combination of physical effects can also occur in plasmas (e.g. ion-cyclotron emissions in DT plasmas under fusion burn conditions) implying the potential for pulse formation in certain parameter regimes. In this poster we will discuss a simple model which captures many of the qualitative aspects of the dynamics, the effects of noise on instabilities, and symbolic time series methods for detecting precursors of the mode-locking/mode-unlocking transition.
- Publication:
-
APS Division of Plasma Physics Meeting Abstracts
- Pub Date:
- October 2000
- Bibcode:
- 2000APS..DPPVP1005A