Spontaneous optical fractal pattern formation

Huang, JG; McDonald, GS

Abstract

We report, for the first time, spontaneous nonlinear optical spatial fractals. The proposed generic
mechanism employs intrinsic nonlinear dynamics both to generate an initial pattern seed and to fill out
structure across decades of spatial scale. We demonstrate this in one of the simplest of nonlinear optical
systems, composed of a Kerr slice and a single-feedback mirror. In this case, the smallest pattern scales are
limited by either the optical wavelength or the diffusion length of the medium photoexcitation. The
dimension characteristics of these particular fractals are also derived.

Citation

Huang, J., & McDonald, G. (2005). Spontaneous optical fractal pattern formation. Physical review letters, 94(17), 174101. https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevLett.94.174101

• Journal Article Type: Article
• Publication Date: May 6, 2005
• Deposit Date: Aug 22, 2007
• Journal: Physical Review Letters
• Print ISSN: 1079-7114
• Peer Reviewed: Peer Reviewed
• Volume: 94
• Issue: 17
• Pages: 174101
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevLett.94.174101
• Publisher URL: http://dx.doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevLett.94.174101