Spontaneous generation of patterns and their control in nonlinear optical systems

The recent wealth of experimental observations of patterns in a variety of nonlinear optical systems has stimulated rapid growth in this area of nonlinear science. In this paper, we will review some of our old results on pattern formation in passive bistable resonators as a backdrop to discussing recent results on controlling patterns in high-power wide-aperture semiconductor lasers. As an illustration of the latter, a novel robust spatial/spectral filtering delay-feedback control scheme will be described which stabilizes and steers the weakly turbulent output of a broad area semiconductor laser.