Optical chaos in multiple degenerate four-wave mixing

Spatial evolution has been studied of an ensemble of equal-frequency light waves involved in several four-wave mixing processes under linear photoabsorption. It is shown that this system may exhibit spatial chaos caused by competition of optical mixing processes with strong energy exchange between the waves. For pulsed radiation, the temporal envelopes of interacting waves undergo modulations which may also be of chaotic character. Also discussed are possible variants of identifying chaos in systems of interacting light waves experimentally and the role of accompanying photoprocesses (photoabsorption, self-action of radiation).