Optical textures: characterizing spatiotemporal chaos

TL;DR

This paper investigates the transition from stationary patterns to spatiotemporal chaos in a nematic liquid crystal system with optical feedback, using Lyapunov exponents and Fourier analysis to characterize complex behaviors.

Contribution

It introduces a novel optical setup to study spatiotemporal chaos and distinguishes chaos from turbulence using combined analytical methods.

Findings

Transition from stationary to chaotic patterns observed

Lyapunov exponent effectively characterizes chaos

Fourier analysis differentiates chaos from turbulence

Abstract

Macroscopic systems subjected to injection and dissipation of energy can exhibit complex spatiotemporal behaviors as result of dissipative self-organization. Here, we report a one and two dimensional pattern forming set up, which exhibits a transition from stationary patterns to spatiotemporal chaotic textures, based on a nematic liquid crystal layer with spatially modulated input beam and optical feedback. Using an adequate projection of spatiotemporal diagrams, we determine the largest Lyapunov exponent. Jointly, this exponent and Fourier transform allow us to distinguish between spatiotemporal chaos and amplitude turbulence concepts, which are usually merged.