Periodic orbits underlying spatiotemporal chaos in the Lugiato-Lefever model

Abstract

We obtain and investigate theoretically a broad family of stable and unstable time-periodic orbits-oscillating Turing rolls (OTR)-in the Lugiato-Lefever model of optical cavities. Using the dynamical systems tools developed in fluid dynamics, we access the OTR solution branches in parameter space and elucidate their bifurcation structure. By tracking these exact invariant solutions deeply into the chaotic region of the modulation instability, we connect the main dynamical regimes of the Lugiato-Lefever model: continuous waves, Turing rolls, solitons, and breathers, which completes the classical phase diagram of the optical cavity. We then demonstrate that the OTR periodic orbits play a fundamental role as elementary building blocks in the regime of the intracavity field transition from stable Turing rolls to fully developed turbulent regimes. Depending on the cavity size, we observe that the chaotic intracavity field driven by modulation instability displays either spatiotemporal or purely temporal intermittancy between chaotic dynamics and different families of the OTR solutions, exhibiting locally the distinctive wave patterns and large amplitude peaks. This opens avenues for a theoretical description of optical turbulence within the dynamical systems framework.