Intensity instability and correlation in amplified multimode wave mixing.

The dynamics of optical nonlinearity in the presence of gain and feedback can be complex leading to chaos in certain regimes. Temporal, spectral, spatial, or polarization instability of optical fields can emerge from chaotic response of an optical [Formula: see text] or [Formula: see text] nonlinear medium placed between two cavity mirrors or before a single feedback mirror. The complex mode dynamics, high-order correlations, and transition to instability in these systems are not well known.