Observation of Bifurcation to Chaos in an All-Optical Fabry-Perot Resonator

Abstract
We report observation of bifurcations, higher harmonics, and chaos in an all-optical quantum system. These phenomena occur in a passive Fabry-Perot resonator, in association with deep and sustained Ikeda modulation of smooth input pulses. Results are in excellent agreement with our adaptation of optical bistability theory to the time-dependent regime.