Pulsating instabilities and chaos in Raman lasers

The results of a theoretical and experimental investigation of the steady state and dynamical unstable behaviour of a single-mode, homogeneously broadened Raman laser is presented. Single mode homogeneously broadened Raman lasers, which are equivalent to far off-resonantly pumped three level lasers, are mathematically reducible to a simple description similar to that for a detuned two level laser. The Raman system is however physically quite distinct involving a two photon, rather than a one photon, interaction between levels in a non-inverted, rather than an inverted state. In this article we highlight aspects of a detailed theoretical and experimental study of the steady state and the dynamically unstable behaviour of the Raman system with particular emphasis on parameterisation of the boundaries of unstable behaviour.