Domain coexistence in nonlinear optical pattern formation

Summary form only given. The simplest case of domain coexistence corresponds to bistable situations involving two modes, such as rolls and hexagons in Rayleigh-Benard convection and in optical ring cavity. More complex structures have been more recently observed in an optical system with liquid crystal light valve. In this report we present a combined theoretical and experimental investigation of domain coexistence of a variety of different elementary patterns in a two-dimensional feedback optical system. Our theoretical model is based on a nonlinear feedback-mirror type pattern-forming system. The nonlinearity that we chose gives a cosine-type phase modulation, which was realized through a large-scale array optoelectronic circuits in the experimental configuration. The experiment set-up comprises liquid crystal phase spatial light modulator coupled with optoelectronic feedback loop. We compare our theoretical findings with experiment results. The predicted domain patterns in the theory can explain many of the spatial structures observed in the experiment.