The main goal of this work is the implementation of some mathematical notions like attractors, orbits, sensitive dependence and chaos in the study of the multiple reflection of a light beam. We shall analyze some concrete situations of reflection on a circle, on a rectangle and the general case of a conic, all this cases with direct application to the optical resonant cavities of lasers. Using some general results concerning the dynamical systems, we shall point out the conditions that the multiple reflection must satisfy in order to obtain a periodic reflection or chaotic behavior.

Date Published: 8 March 1995
PDF: 5 pages
Proc. SPIE 2461, ROMOPTO '94: Fourth Conference in Optics, (8 March 1995); doi: 10.1117/12.203550

Published in SPIE Proceedings Vol. 2461:
ROMOPTO '94: Fourth Conference in Optics
Valentin I. Vlad, Editor(s)