Abstract

Spatiotemporal dynamics of extended systems is presently a very active field of research. If the static behavior of patterns can be considered as being well established, the situation is quite different for the dynamics. In fact, in most cases the first instability gives rise to a static pattern and the temporal dynamics appear only at higher intensities. A much simpler situation would occur if both the spatial and the temporal aspects of the instability appeared at the first threshold. We present an experimental study of such a situation for a laser beam transmitted through a rubidium cell with a tilted feedback mirror.

© 1995 Optical Society of America