WSELOP-2024

His research interests include nonlinear dynamics, chaos, control of chaos, synchronization and infrared digital holography. In the early 1980s at the National Institute of Optics (Florence, Italy) he contributed to a pioneer experiment on chaotic behavior in a CO2 laser when a periodic forcing was applied to the cavity loss parameter. In this pioneer experiment, also “generalized multistability” was discovered. Few years later, he contributed to other experiments where chaos in a laser was achieved by using an electro- optic feedback acting on the same time scale of the other two relevant variables. Riccardo Meucci has been active also on control of chaos using both feedback and open loop methods on experiments using lasers and electronic oscillators. In a seminal experiment in 1994, chaos was controlled and redirected on a stable periodic solution by applying small periodic perturbations with a fine adjustment of the relative phase with respect to a main forcing responsible for chaos. This open-loop method for chaos control is today known as “phase control of chaos“ Another field of investigation by Riccardo Meucci is Digital Holography in the mid infrared region, using CO2 lasers. Extension of this coherent technique to the infrared region, has several advantages over the visible spectral range, allowing vision through smoke and flames and monitoring intrinsic vibrations of buildings or infrastructures.