Homoclinic dynamics in experimental Shil’nikov attractors

We report the experimental observation of Shil’nikov-type attractors in the reflection of optothermal nonlinear devices, evidencing homoclinic phenomena associated with a variety of saddle set configurations. Recurrent phase-space operations underlying the homoclinic dynamics are evidenced by analysis of proper Poincaré sections. In the case of a saddle limit cycle, deterministic aperiodic evolutions are pointed out clearly by means of high-order multibranched first-return maps. © 1996 The American Physical Society.