Abstract

Many nonlinear systems in nature and in techniques display self-sustained oscillations with particular amplitude and with free (invariant) phase. If such system is subjected to the periodic in time injection, i.e. to a periodic additive signal with zero average (such as ∝ cos(Ωt)) then the phase invariance is broken and a pair of stable states with similar amplitudes and π-shifted phases can be obtained. Such temporal “rocking”, or the forcing mechanism which converts the phase-invariant oscillatory system into a phase-bistable system is a general effect in physics of dynamical systems [1].

© 2011 Optical Society of America