Bifurcation analysis of laser systems

This exposition explains the basic ideas and methods of bifurcation analysis, where the rate equation model of an optically injected semiconductor laser is used as an example throughout. Bifurcations of equilibria and periodic orbits that occur when a single parameter is changed are introduced one by one. For each of them we show what the bifurcation actually looks like for the injected laser. The transitons to chaos via period-doublings and the break-up of a torus are explained as well. Finally, a brief discussion points to topics not covered here.