Instabilities and chaos in a bistable thin layer of two-level atoms

A theoretical analysis is made of the interaction between a bistable thin layer and an electromagnetic wave of modulated amplitude. It is shown that complex (including random) regimes appear in the reflection and transmission of light by a thin layer. The model equations are presented in a form correpsonding to the motion of a classical nonlinear oscillator with parametric and external force excitation. The behavior of the system is analyzed in terms of the dynamics of this oscillator.