Chaotic switching oscillation in a ring resonator with counter-propagating light

We consider a resonator with two optical modes, excited with counter-propagating light of equal intensities. Recently, it was shown that the natural symmetry of this optical system can lead to spontaneous symmetry breaking of its steady states. We show that this symmetry property also applies to chaotic attractors, leading to different types of self-switching oscillations. We demonstrate that transitions between such attractors occur when the system exhibits a Shilnikov bifurcation. We employ a dynamical system approach to identify distinct switching behaviors as characterized by symbolic information and associated Shilnikov bifurcations.