  We study the effect of spatial frequency-forcing on standing-wave solutions
of coupled complex Ginzburg-Landau equations. The model considered describes
several situations of nonlinear counterpropagating waves and also of the
dynamics of polarized light waves. We show that forcing introduces spatial
modulations on standing waves which remain frequency locked with a
forcing-independent frequency. For forcing above a threshold the modulated
standing waves unlock, bifurcating into a temporally periodic state. Below the
threshold the system presents a kind of excitability.
