Self-wave processes in a wide-aperture laser with an additional nonlinear component

A theoretical investigation is made of the dynamics of the optical field in a wide-aperture laser with an intracavity nonlinear component in the form of a bleachable filter or a Kerr medium. The simplest case of two-level active and nonlinear media is considered and it is shown that transverse self-waves may appear in the optical field. An analysis is made of the stability of steady states of the system and new relationships are used to find the optimal conditions for an advanced stage of the evolution of the self-wave pattern. The optimal parameters leading to the appearance of wave formations along the laser aperture are estimated. Calculations are made of several informative variants of self-wave lasing regimes and their parameters are estimated.