Period-doubling-induced phase hopping in a phase-conjugate resonator

The intracavity intensity of an empty phase-conjugate resonator in which the phase-conjugate mirror is a Kerr medium with instantaneous response can exhibit a sequence of period-doubling bifurcations to chaos. We show that the first such bifurcation is in general already sufficient to induce a quasi-periodic motion of the field phase, leading in practice to its complete indetermination.