Extreme events in ultrafast lasers

We report experimental and theoretical evidence of the existence of extreme value events in the form of scarce and randomly emerging giant pulses in the femtosecond (self-pulsing or Kerr-lens mode-locked) Ti:sapphire laser. This laser displays complex dynamical behavior, including deterministic chaos, in two different regimes. The extreme value pulses are observed in the chaotic state of only one of these two regimes. The observations agree with the predictions of a well-tested theoretical model that does not include noise or self-Q-switching into its framework. This implies that, in this laser, the extreme effects have a nontrivial dynamical origin. The Ti:sapphire laser is hence revealed as a new and convenient system for the study of these effects.