Generation of chaotic beats

We show that coupled Kerr and Duffing oscillators with small nonlinearities and strong external pumping can generate chaotic and hyperchaotic beats. The appearance of chaos within beats depends strongly on the type of interactions between the nonlinear oscillators. To indicate chaotic behavior of the system we make use of the Lyapunov exponents. The structure of chaotic beats can be qualitatively different - the envelope function can be smooth if the system is undamped or can give the impression of noise structure in the presence of strong damping and nonlinear interactions between the individual oscillators. The systems considered can be used, in practice, as generators of chaotic beats with chaotically modulated envelopes and frequencies.