A Transverse Oscillation Arising From Spatial Soliton Formation in Nonlinear Optical Cavities

A new type of transverse instability in dispersively nonlinear optical cavities, called the optical whistle, is discussed. This instability occurs in the mean-field, soliton forming limit when the cavity is driven with a finite-width Gaussian beam, and gives rise to oscillation, period doubling, and chaos. It is also seen that bistability is strongly affected due to the oscillation within the upper transmission branch. The phenomenon is interpreted as a mode-mismatch in the soliton formation process and is believed to have broad applicability.