Patterns arising from the interaction between scalar and vectorial instabilities in two-photon resonant Kerr cavities

We study pattern formation associated with the polarization degree of freedom of the electric field amplitude in a mean field model describing a nonlinear Kerr medium close to a two-photon resonance, placed inside a ring cavity with flat mirrors and driven by a coherent x̂-polarized plane-wave field. In the self-focusing case, for negative detunings the pattern arises naturally from a codimension two bifurcation. For a critical value of the field intensity there are two wave numbers that become unstable simultaneously, corresponding to two Turing-like instabilities. Considered alone, one of the instabilities would originate a linearly polarized hexagonal pattern whereas the other instability is of pure vectorial origin and would give rise to an elliptically polarized stripe pattern. We show that the competition between the two wave numbers can originate different structures, the detuning being a natural selection parameter. © 2002 The American Physical Society.SCOPUS: ar.j