Secondary bifurcations of hexagonal patterns in a nonlinear optical system: alkali metal vapor in a single-mirror arrangement

Phys Rev E Stat Nonlin Soft Matter Phys. 2004 Mar;69(3 Pt 2):036205. doi: 10.1103/PhysRevE.69.036205. Epub 2004 Mar 24.

Abstract

Secondary bifurcations of hexagonal patterns are analyzed in a model of a single-mirror arrangement with an alkali metal vapor as the nonlinear medium. A stability analysis of the hexagonal structures is performed numerically. Different instabilities are predicted in dependency on the wave number of the hexagons. Some of the instabilities take place at a finite wave number and result in the formation of structures with 12 spatial modes. These structures are compared with those observed experimentally.