0000000000082343

AUTHOR

Miro Erkintalo

Higher-order modulation instability in fiber optics

We report on analytical, numerical and experimental studies of higher-order modulation instability in fiber optics. This new form of instability arises from the nonlinear superposition of elementary instabilities and manifests as complex, yet deterministic temporal pulse break-up dynamics. We use the Darboux transformation to analytically describe the process and compare with experiments. In particular, we show how suitably low frequency modulation on a continuous wave field allows for the excitation of higher-order modulation instability through cascaded four-wave mixing.

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Existence and dynamics of pairs of temporal cavity solitons weakly-bound through kelly sidebands in a passive optical fiber resonator

We report experimental observations of weaklybound states of temporal cavity solitons, with separations of 10 soliton widths and beyond, in a 100-m single mode fiber cavity. Bound state dynamics has been studied using the real time dispersive Fourier transform technique for roundtrip-byroundtrip measurements. Temporal oscillations in the cavity soliton background, associated with the presence of Kelly sidebands, have been identified as the binding mechanism.

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Higher-order modulation instability in optical fibers

International audience; We report on theoretical, numerical and experimental study of a new form of instability in a nonlinear fiber. This process of higher-order modulation instability arises from the nonlinear superposition of elementary instability dynamics.

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Dissipative Polarization Domain Walls in a Passive Coherently Driven Kerr Resonator.

Using a passive, coherently driven nonlinear optical fiber ring resonator, we report the experimental realization of dissipative polarization domain walls. The domain walls arise through a symmetry breaking bifurcation and consist of temporally localized structures where the amplitudes of the two polarization modes of the resonator interchange, segregating domains of orthogonal polarization states. We show that dissipative polarization domain walls can persist in the resonator without changing shape. We also demonstrate on-demand excitation, as well as pinning of domain walls at specific positions for arbitrary long times. Our results could prove useful for the analog simulation of ubiquito…

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Asymmetric balance in symmetry breaking

Spontaneous symmetry breaking is central to our understanding of physics and explains many natural phenomena, from cosmic scales to subatomic particles. Its use for applications requires devices with a high level of symmetry, but engineered systems are always imperfect. Surprisingly, the impact of such imperfections has barely been studied, and restricted to a single asymmetry. Here, we experimentally study spontaneous symmetry breaking with two controllable asymmetries. We remarkably find that features typical of spontaneous symmetry breaking, while destroyed by one asymmetry, can be restored by introducing a second asymmetry. In essence, asymmetries are found to balance each other. Our st…

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Roadmap on optical rogue waves and extreme events

Nail Akhmediev et al. ; 38 págs.; 28 figs.

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Dissipative polarization domain walls as persisting topological defects

We experimentally demonstrate the existence of dissipative polarization domain walls in a normally dispersive Kerr resonator. We excite and trap them with appropriate external signals thus realizing an all-optical buffer for topological data.

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Higher-Order Modulation Instability in Nonlinear Fiber Optics

International audience; We report theoretical, numerical, and experimental studies of higher-order modulation instability in the focusing nonlinear Schrödinger equation. This higher-order instability arises from the nonlinear superposition of elementary instabilities, associated with initial single breather evolution followed by a regime of complex, yet deterministic, pulse splitting. We analytically describe the process using the Darboux transformation and compare with experiments in optical fiber. We show how a suitably low frequency modulation on a continuous wave field induces higher-order modulation instability splitting with the pulse characteristics at different phases of evolution r…

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Optical rogue waves and localized structures in nonlinear fiber optics

We review our recent work in the field of optical rogue wave physics. Beginning from a brief survey of the well-known instabilities in optical fiber, we trace the links to recent developments in studying the emergence of high contrast localized breather structures in both spontaneous and induced nonlinear instabilities.

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Nonlinear dynamics of modulated signals in optical fibers

International audience; The nonlinear Schrodinger equation (NLSE) describes the nonlinear waves localization dynamics in weakly dispersive media, and it has been extensively studied in various contexts in nonlinear science. A particular class of solutions of the NLSE that has recently attracted considerable attention is that of the solitons on finite background as their localization dynamics have been proposed as an important mechanism underlying the formation of extreme amplitude waves on the surface of the ocean. Much of this work has also been motivated by an extensive parallel research effort research in optics that has shown how nonlinear optical fiber systems can be used to implement …

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Seeded and spontaneous higher-order modulation instability

International audience; We report on the dynamics of the higher-order modulation instability in optical fibers and show that it is the very same phenomenon that underpins the emergence of rogue waves in the early stage of supercontinuum generation.

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Buffering optical topological data using passive Kerr resonators

We experimentally demonstrate the existence of dissipative polarization domain walls, in a normally dispersive Kerr resonator. Through deterministic manipulation of the laser driving the resonator, we achieve systematic excitation and locking of the domain walls.

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Imperfect symmetry breaking

By considering a nonlinear resonator driven by an elliptically polarized beam, we study experimentally the robustness of spontaneous symmetry breaking to controlled asymmetries. In particular, we reveal that different asymmetries can balance each other.

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Nonlinear topological symmetry protection in a dissipative system

We report an experimental and theoretical investigation of a system whose dynamics is dominated by an intricate interplay between three key concepts of modern physics: topology, nonlinearity, and spontaneous symmetry breaking. The experiment is based on a two-mode coherently-driven optical resonator in which photons interact through the Kerr nonlinearity. In presence of a phase defect between the modes, a nonlinear attractor develops, which confers a synthetic M\"obius topology to the modal structure of the system. That topology is associated with an inherently protected exchange symmetry between the modes, enabling the realization of spontaneous symmetry breaking in ideal, bias-free, condi…

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Lumière sur les vagues scélérates : le soliton de Peregrine enfin observé !

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