This book is the first comprehensive volume on nonlinear dynamics and
chaos in optical systems. A few books have been published recently, but
they summarize applied mathematical methodologies toward understanding
of nonlinear dynamics in laser systems with small degrees of freedom
focusing on linearized perturbation and bifurcation analyses. In
contrast to these publications, this book summarizes nonlinear dynamic
problems in optical complex systems possessing large degrees of freedom,
systematically featuring our original experimental results and their
theoretical treatments. The new concepts introduced in this book will
have a wide appeal to audiences involved in a rapidly-growing field of
nonlinear dynamics.
This book focuses on nonlinear dynamics and cooperative functions in
realistic optical complex systems, such as multimode lasers, laser
array, coupled nonlinear-element systems, and their applications to
optical processing. This book is prepared for graduate students majoring
in optical and laser physics, but the generic nature of complex systems
described in this book may stimulate researchers in the field of
nonlinear dynamics covering different academic areas including applied
mathematics, hydrodynamics, celestial mechanics, chemistry, biology, and
economics.