Quasiattractors in coupled maps and coupled dielectric cavities

Abstract

We study the origin of attracting phenomena in the ray dynamics of coupled optical microcavities. To this end we investigate a combined map that is composed of standard and linear map, and a selection rule that defines when which map has to be used. We find that this system shows attracting dynamics, leading exactly to a quasiattractor, due to collapse of phase space. For coupled dielectric disks, we derive the corresponding mapping based on a ray model with deterministic selection rule and study the quasiattractor obtained from it. We also discuss a generalized Poincar\'e surface of section at dielectric interfaces.