On the global feedback stabilization of regenerative optical amplifiers

Abstract The generation of high-energy laser pulses by so-called regenerative (optical) amplifiers is limited by the occurrence of period-doubling bifurcations induced by an inherently unstable pulse-to-pulse dynamics. Recently, the application of linear feedback methods to stabilize this pulse-to-pulse dynamics by modifying the supplied seed pulses was suggested as an alternative to the quite expensive current state of the art involving dedicated pre-amplifiers. To address some shortcomings inherent to the linear feedback, this paper investigates the design of nonlinear state feedback laws and in particular the possibility to stabilize the pulse-to-pulse dynamics globally subject to the given input constraints.