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Optical resonators

Chaos aids energy storage

Nature Photonics volume 7, pages 430–431 (2013)Cite this article

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Deformed optical resonators that support chaotically propagating modes have been shown to store more light energy than conventional cavities.

Chaotic processes are observed in dynamical systems in which the final state shows an exponential sensitivity to slight changes to the initial conditions — a phenomenon termed 'the butterfly effect' by Edward Lorenz1 in 1972 and subsequently popularized in various books and movies. Chaotic dynamics has been reported in almost every field of science. In optics, chaos is found in, for example, the output of a laser diode2, the power fluctuations of light propagating in a passive cavity filled with a nonlinear medium3 and the complex spatiotemporal patterns generated by lasers with high Fresnel numbers4.

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Figure 1: Chaotic modes in a stadium-shaped optical resonator.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. LMOPS Laboratory (Supélec and University of Lorraine) and OPTEL Department, Marc Sciamanna is at Supélec, 2 Rue Edouard Belin, 57070 Metz, France,

    Marc Sciamanna

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  1. Marc Sciamanna
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Correspondence to Marc Sciamanna.

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Sciamanna, M. Chaos aids energy storage. Nature Photon 7, 430–431 (2013). https://doi.org/10.1038/nphoton.2013.135

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