Quasiperiodic transition to chaos in a multimode YAG:Nd3+ laser with modulated parameters

Numerical and experimental investigations were made of the nature of the transition to chaos in the case of YAG:Nd³⁺ laser with modulated parameters. It was found that the interaction of longitudinal modes via a spatially distributed population inversion was responsible for the transition to chaos in accordance with the Ruelle–Takens–Newhouse scenario. The chaos appearance threshold was minimal near the frequency of purely relaxational oscillations.