Amplitude instability in coupled Nd:YVO/sub 4/ microchip lasers

Summary form only given.Arrays of coupled lasers, especially semiconductor laser arrays, are of considerable technical importance. However, both experiment and theory already have shown that two single-mode lasers that are stable individually can exhibit a chaotic instability when coupled. While the dynamical time scales in semiconductor lasers prohibit measurements in the time domain, solid-state lasers are much better suited for studying the basic dynamics of coupling instabilities. Here, we use a very compact Nd:YVO/sub 4/ microchip resonator that enables us for the first time to investigate the whole significant parameter space for the dynamics of this system. This includes in particular the regime of small mutual detuning, where, due to severe fluctuations, only indirect observations have been possible up to now.