Monitor-Outside-a-Monitor Effect and Self-Similar Fractal Structure in the Eigenmodes of Unstable Optical Resonators

This is the authors' abstract. We don't add key points for this paper.

A novel mechanism is proposed for the generation of self-similar structure over a limited range of length scales. Our mechanism, which we call the monitor-outside-a-monitor effect, comprises repeated magnification and addition of small-scale structure. We invoke this mechanism to explain recent observations of fractal structure in the eigenmodes of unstable optical resonators [G. P. Karman et al., Nature (London) 402, 138 (1999)].