Complete nonlinear polarization control in an optical fiber system.

International audience; We consider the counterpropagating interaction of a signal and a pump beam in an isotropic optical fiber. On the basis of recently developed mathematical techniques, we show that an arbitrary state of polarization of the signal beam can be converted into any other desired state of polarization. On the other hand, an unpolarized signal beam may be repolarized into two specific states of polarization, without loss of energy. Both processes of repolarization and polarization conversion may be controlled by adjusting the polarization state of the backward pump.

Thermalization of incoherent nonlinear waves

International audience

Attracteur de polarisation dans les fibres optiques

Nous etudions la dynamique non lineaire des etats de polarisation de deux ondes coherentes ou incoherentes se propageant dans une fibre optique. Nous presentons en particulier un effet original d'attraction de la polarisation.

Truncated thermalization of incoherent optical waves through supercontinuum generation in photonic crystal fibers

We revisit the process of optical wave thermalization through supercontinuum generation in photonic crystal fibers. We report theoretically and numerically a phenomenon of `truncated thermalization': The incoherent optical wave exhibits an irreversible evolution toward a Rayleigh-Jeans thermodynamic equilibrium state characterized by a compactly supported spectral shape. The theory then reveals the existence of a frequency cut-off which regularizes the ultraviolet catastrophe inherent to ensembles of classical nonlinear waves. This phenomenon sheds new light on the mechanisms underlying the formation of bounded supercontinuum spectra in photonic crystal fibers.

Emergence of spectral incoherent solitons through supercontinuum generation in photonic crystal fibers

International audience; We report an experimental and numerical study of the spontaneous emergence of spectral incoherent solitons through supercontinuum generation in a two zero-dispersionwavelengths photonic crystal fiber. By using a simple experimental setup, we show that the highly nonlinear regime of supercontinuum generation is characterized by the emergence of a spectral incoherent soliton in the low-frequency edge of the supercontinuum spectrum. We show that a transition occurs from the discrete spectral incoherent soliton to its continuous counterpart as the power of the laser is increased. Contrary to conventional solitons, spectral incoherent solitons do not exhibit a confinement…

Manifestation of Hamiltonian Monodromy in Nonlinear Wave Systems

International audience; We show that the concept of dynamical monodromy plays a natural fundamental role in the spatiotemporal dynamics of counterpropagating nonlinear wave systems. By means of an adiabatic change of the boundary conditions imposed to the wave system, we show that Hamiltonian monodromy manifests itself through the spontaneous formation of a topological phase singularity (2 - or -phase defect) in the nonlinear waves. This manifestation of dynamical Hamiltonian monodromy is illustrated by generic nonlinear wave models. In particular, we predict that its measurement can be realized in a direct way in the framework of a nonlinear optics experiment.

Towards a nonequilibrium thermodynamic description of incoherent nonlinear optics

pa href="http://oe.osa.org/virtual_issue.cfm?vid=36"Focus Serial: Frontiers of Nonlinear Optics/a/pThis concise review is aimed at providing an introduction to the kinetic theory of partially coherent optical waves propagating in nonlinear media. The subject of incoherent nonlinear optics received a renewed interest since the first experimental demonstration of incoherent solitons in slowly responding photorefractive crystals. Several theories have been successfully developed to provide a detailed description of the novel dynamical features inherent to partially coherent nonlinear optical waves. However, such theories leave unanswered the following important question: Which is the long term…

Influence of dispersion on the resonant interaction between three incoherent waves

We study the influence of group-velocity dispersion (or diffraction) on the coherence properties of the parametric three-wave interaction driven from an incoherent pump wave. We show that, under certain conditions, the incoherent pump may efficiently amplify a signal wave with a high degree of coherence, in contrast with the usual kinetic description of the incoherent three-wave interaction. The group-velocity dispersion is shown to be responsible for a spectral filtering process, in which the coherence of the generated signal increases, as the coherence of the pump wave decreases. As a result, the coherence acquired by the signal in the presence of an incoherent pump, is higher than that a…

Condensation of classical nonlinear waves

We study the formation of a large-scale coherent structure (a condensate) in classical wave equations by considering the defocusing nonlinear Schr\"odinger equation as a representative model. We formulate a thermodynamic description of the condensation process by using a wave turbulence theory with ultraviolet cut-off. In 3 dimensions the equilibrium state undergoes a phase transition for sufficiently low energy density, while no transition occurs in 2 dimensions, in analogy with standard Bose-Einstein condensation in quantum systems. Numerical simulations show that the thermodynamic limit is reached for systems with $16^3$ computational modes and greater. On the basis of a modified wave tu…

A universal all-fiber omnipolarizer

The all-optical control of light polarization is nowadays a fundamental issue which finds important applications in optical networks. In this field, the research has moved on the development of nonlinear methods of re-polarization of a partially coherent and initially depolarized light [1]. The main drawback of most of these devices is that they suffer from a large amount of output Relative-Intensity-Noise (RIN). However, a class of polarizers have been recently proposed which is based on the nonlinear interaction between two optical beams counter-propagating in a fiber [2]: in these devices the arbitrary state of polarization (SOP) of one of the two beams (signal) is attracted towards a sp…

Spectral incoherent solitons

Solitons have been usually considered as inherently coherent localized structures and the discovery of incoherent optical solitons has represented a significant progress [1]. As occurs for standard coherent solitons, incoherent solitons are characterized by a confinement of the field in the spatial or in the temporal domain. We introduce here a novel type of incoherent solitons that are neither spatial nor temporal, i.e., the incoherent field does not exhibit any confinement in the spatiotemporal domain; however, the uncorrelated frequency components that constitute the incoherent field exhibit a localized soliton behavior in the frequency domain [2].

Breakdown of weak turbulence and nonlinear wave condensation

International audience

Optical flip-flop memory and data packet switching operation based on polarization bistability in a telecommunication optical fiber

We report the experimental observation of bistability and hysteresis phenomena of the polarization signal in a telecommunication optical fiber. This process occurs in a counterpropagating configuration in which the optical beam nonlinearly interacts with its own Bragg-reflected replica at the fiber output. The proof of principle of optical flip–flop memory and 10  Gbit/s routing operation is also reported based on this polarization bistability. Finally, we also provide a general physical understanding of this behavior on the basis of a geometrical analysis of an effective model of the dynamics. Good quantitative agreement between theory and experiment is obtained.

Extreme statistics in Raman fiber amplifiers : from experiments to analytical description

International audience; We describe the concept of an all-fibered device that enables the optical magnification of the amplitude jitter of low-fluctuation pulse trains, facilitating the measurement of the statistical properties by usual photodiodes and electronic equipments. Taking advantage of a highly nonlinear fiber with anomalous dispersion followed by central optical bandpass filtering, we experimentally demonstrate an amplification of small-scale fluctuations by a factor 10.

Extreme Statistics in Raman Fiber Amplifiers: From Analytical Description to Experiments

International audience; In this work, we investigate the emergence of rare and intense events during the Raman fiber amplification of a continuous wave. We highlight how dispersive properties and pump depletion can strongly influence the statistical properties of the amplified signal and its optical spectrum. Under certain conditions, the probability density functions of the amplified signal are calculated analytically and compared with the results of the numerical simulations. The conclusions are qualitatively validated by experiments carried out at telecommunication wavelengths.

Spectral incoherent solitons: a localized soliton behavior in the frequency domain

We show both theoretically and experimentally in an optical fiber system that a noninstantaneous nonlinear environment supports the existence of spectral incoherent solitons. Contrary to conventional solitons, spectral incoherent solitons do not exhibit a confinement in the spatiotemporal domain, but exclusively in the frequency domain. The theory reveals that the causality condition inherent to the nonlinear response function is the key property underlying the existence of spectral incoherent solitons. These solitons constitute nonequilibrium stable states of the incoherent field and are shown to be robust with respect to binary collisions.

Complex behavior of ray in gaussian index profile periodicaly segmented waveguide

International audience; In this article, we present a numerical analysis concerning ray propagation in a multimode periodic segmented waveguide with a gaussian index segment profile. We show that this simple waveguide configuration exhibits a complex ray dynamics that can be regular or chaotic depending on the initial conditions.

Relaxation of counter-propagating waves and singular Hamiltonian tori

International audience

Introduction to Wave Turbulence Formalisms for Incoherent Optical Waves

We provide an introduction to different wave turbulence formalisms describing the propagation of partially incoherent optical waves in nonlinear media. We consider the nonlinear Schrodinger equation as a representative model accounting for a nonlocal or a noninstantaneous nonlinearity, as well as higher-order dispersion effects. We discuss the wave turbulence kinetic equation describing, e.g., wave condensation or wave thermalization through supercontinuum generation; the Vlasov formalism describing incoherent modulational instabilities and the formation of large scale incoherent localized structures in analogy with long-range gravitational systems; and the weak Langmuir turbulence formalis…

Incoherent modulation instability in instantaneous nonlinear Kerr media

We demonstrate theoretically and experimentally in an optical fiber system that partially temporally incoherent light exhibits modulational instability during its propagation in an instantaneous response nonlinear medium. We show that the modulation frequency and gain are substantially increased with respect to the corresponding values of coherent modulational instability.

Spontaneous polarization induced by natural thermalization of incoherent light

We analyze theoretically the polarization properties of a partially coherent optical field that propagates in a nonlinear Kerr medium. We consider the standard model of two resonantly coupled nonlinear Schrödinger equations, which account for a wave-vector mismatch between the orthogonal polarization components. We show that such a phase-mismatch is responsible for the existence of a spontaneous repolarization process of the partially incoherent optical field during its nonlinear propagation. The repolarization process is characterized by an irreversible evolution of the unpolarized beam towards a highly polarized state, without any loss of energy. This unexpected result contrasts with the …

Turbulent Dynamics of an Incoherently Pumped Passive Optical Fibre Cavity: quasi-solitons and dispersive waves

International audience; We study numerically and experimentally the dynamics of an incoherently pumped passive optical fibre ring cavity. We show that the cavity exhibits a quasi-soliton turbulence dynamics, whose properties are controlled by the degree of coherence of the injected pump wave: as the coherence of the pump is degraded, the cavity exhibits a transition from the quasi-soliton turbulent regime toward the weakly nonlinear turbulent regime characterized by short-lived rogue wave events. This behavior is reminiscent of the corresponding dynamics obtained in the purely conservative (Hamiltonian) problem. Experimental results are reported by using a standard telecommunication optical…

Velocity locking of incoherent nonlinear wave packets

We show both theoretically and experimentally in an optical fiber system that a set of incoherent nonlinear waves irreversibly evolves to a specific equilibrium state, in which the individual wave packets propagate with identical group velocities. This intriguing process of velocity locking can be explained in detail by simple thermodynamic arguments based on the kinetic wave theory. Accordingly, the selection of the velocity-locked state is shown to result from the natural tendency of the isolated wave system to approach the state that maximizes the nonequilibrium entropy.

Hamiltonian tools for the analysis of optical polarization control

Import JabRef; International audience; The study of the polarization dynamics of two counterpropagating beams in optical fibers has recently been the subject of a growing renewed interest, from both the theoretical and experimental points of view. This system exhibits a phenomenon of polarization attraction, which can be used to achieve a complete polarization of an initially unpolarized signal beam, almost without any loss of energy. Along the same way, an arbitrary polarization state of the signal beam can be controlled and converted into any other desired state of polarization, by adjusting the polarization state of the counterpropagating pump beam. These properties have been demonstrate…

Experimental observation of incoherent modulation instability in standard optical fibers

In this work, we demonstrate theoretically and experimentally that a partially temporally incoherent light can exhibit modulational instability when propagating in an optical fiber with instantaneous nonlinear Kerr response.

Instabilité modulationnelle incohérente

Dans cet article, nous presentons une etude theorique et experimentale de l'instabilite de modulation d'une onde partiellement coherente. Les experiences ont ete realisees dans une fibre optique standard au voisinage de 1320 nm. En particulier, et en comparaison avec le cas coherent, nous observons que l'utilisation d'une onde incoherente conduit a une augmentation significative du gain et de la frequence de modulation.

Condensation and thermalization of classsical optical waves in a waveguide

http://pra.aps.org/; International audience; We consider the long-term evolution of a random nonlinear wave that propagates in a multimode optical waveguide. The optical wave exhibits a thermalization process characterized by an irreversible evolution toward an equilibrium state. The tails of the equilibrium distribution satisfy the property of energy equipartition among the modes of the waveguide. As a consequence of this thermalization, the optical field undergoes a process of classical wave condensation, which is characterized by a macroscopic occupation of the fundamental mode of the waveguide. Considering the nonlinear Schrödinger equation with a confining potential, we formulate a wav…

Thermodynamic approach of supercontinuum generation in photonic crystal fiber

We show that the spectral broadening process inherent to supercontinuum generation may be described as a thermalization process, which results from the natural irreversible evolution of the optical field towards a thermodynamic equilibrium state.

Optical flip-flop memory and routing operation based on polarization bistability in optical fiber

A polarization bistability and hysteresis cycle phenomenon is demonstrated in optical fibers thanks to a counter-propagating four-wave mixing interaction. Based on this process, we successfully report the proof-of-principle of an optical flip-flop memory and a 10-Gbit/s routing operation.

Optical Wave Turbulence in Fibers

Anomalous thermalization of nonlinear wave systems

We report theoretically and experimentally in an optical system a process of anomalous thermalization of one-dimensional nonlinear Hamiltonian waves. It is characterized by an irreversible evolution of the waves towards a specific equilibrium state of a fundamental different nature than the expected thermodynamic equilibrium state. A kinetic approach of the problem reveals that this phenomenon is due to the existence of a local invariant in frequency space. A novel family of equilibrium distributions is discovered, which is found in quantitative agreement with the numerical simulations.

Anomalous thermalization of nonlinear opticalwave systems

In complete analogy with a system of classical particules colliding inside a gas medium, an incoherent optical field can evolve, owing to nonlinearity, towards a thermodynamic equilibrium state [1]. In this respect, the spatiotemporal dynamics of the light field is governed by the nonlinear Schrodinger equation and its equilibrium spectrum has been determined in the framework of the weak turbulence theory [1,2]. It is expected that experiments made in the field of nonlinear optics can possibly lead to the observation of turbulence or thermalization of nonlinear waves [1,2]. Here we present experimental, theoretical and numerical studies of different optical systems presenting an unusual the…

Nonequilibrated oscillations of coherence in coupled nonlinear wave systems

International audience; We show that a conservative system of a pair of coupled incoherent nonlinear waves exhibits huge oscillations of coherence, which are characterized by a recurrent transfer of noise fluctuations between the coupled waves. This sustained oscillatory behavior is in contradiction with the expected irreversible evolution towards equilibrium. As a consequence, the process of coherence transfer is characterized by a reduction of nonequilibrium entropy, which violates the H theorem of entropy growth inherent to the kinetic theory.

Weak Langmuir turbulence in disordered multimode optical fibers

We consider the propagation of temporally incoherent waves in multimode optical fibers (MMFs) in the framework of the multimode nonlinear Schr\"odinger (NLS) equation accounting for the impact of the natural structural disorder that affects light propagation in standard MMFs (random mode coupling and polarization fluctuations). By averaging the dynamics over the fast disordered fluctuations, we derive a Manakov equation from the multimode NLS equation, which reveals that the Raman effect introduces a previously unrecognized nonlinear coupling among the modes. Applying the wave turbulence theory on the Manakov equation, we derive a very simple scalar kinetic equation describing the evolution…

Classical wave thermalisation in chaotic multimode optical fibre

Emergence of rogue waves from optical turbulence

International audience; We provide some general physical insights into the emergence of rogue wave events from optical turbulence by analyzing the long term evolution of the field. Depending on the amount of incoherence in the system (i.e., Hamiltonian), we identify three turbulent regimes that lead to the emergence of specific rogue wave events: (i) persistent and coherent rogue quasi-solitons, (ii) intermittent-like rogue quasi-solitons that appear and disappear erratically, and (iii) sporadic rogue waves events that emerge from turbulent fluctuations as bursts of light or intense flashes.

Thermodynamic approach of supercontinuum generation

International audience; This paper is aimed at providing an overview on recent theoretical and experimental works in which a thermodynamic description of the incoherent regime of supercontinuum generation has been formulated. On the basis of the wave turbulence theory, we show that this highly nonlinear and quasi-continuous-wave regime of supercontinuum generation is characterized by two different phenomena. (i) A process of optical wave thermalization ruled by the four-wave mixing effects: The spectral broadening inherent to supercontinuum generation is shown to result from the natural tendency of the optical field to reach its thermodynamic equilibrium state, i. e., the state of maximum n…

Temporal dynamics of incoherent waves in noninstantaneous response nonlinear Kerr media

International audience; We consider the temporal evolution of an incoherent optical wave that propagates in a noninstantaneous response nonlinear medium, such as single mode optical fibers. In contrast with the expected Raman-like spectral redshift due to a delayed nonlinear response, we show that a highly noninstantaneous response leads to a genuine modulational instability of the incoherent optical wave. We derive a Vlasov-like kinetic equation that provides a detailed description of this process of incoherent modulational instability in the temporal domain.

Wave turbulence in integrable systems: nonlinear propagation of incoherent optical waves in single-mode fibers.

International audience; We study theoretically, numerically and experimentally the nonlinear propagation of partially incoherent optical waves in single mode optical fibers. We revisit the traditional treatment of the wave turbulence theory to provide a statistical kinetic description of the integrable scalar NLS equation. In spite of the formal reversibility and of the integrability of the NLS equation, the weakly nonlinear dynamics reveals the existence of an irreversible evolution toward a statistically stationary state. The evolution of the power spectrum of the field is characterized by the rapid growth of spectral tails that exhibit damped oscillations, until the whole spectrum ultima…

Thermalisation anormale d'ondes non linéaires

Towards a Thermodynamic Description of Supercontinuum Generation

Based on the kinetic wave theory, we describe continuous-wave supercontinuum generation as a thermalization process, i.e., an irreversible evolution of the optical field towards a state of maximum nonequilibrium entropy.

Thermodynamic approach of statistical nonlinear optics

The coherence properties of random nonlinear optical fields can be described in detail by thermodynamic arguments based on the wave turbulence theory. We shall review recent progress on this kinetic approach of statistical nonlinear optics.

Incoherent solitons generated in instantaneous response nonlinear Kerr media

We show theoretically and experimentally in an optical fiber system, that incoherent domain wall solitons can be generated spontaneously from incoherent light, despite of the instantaneous response of the fiber Kerr nonlinearity.

Temporal incoherent solitons supported by a defocusing nonlinearity with anomalous dispersion

http://pra.aps.org/; International audience; We study temporal incoherent solitons in noninstantaneous response nonlinear media. Contrarily to the usual temporal soliton, which is known to require a focusing nonlinearity with anomalous dispersion, we show that a highly noninstantaneous nonlinear response leads to incoherent soliton structures which require the inverted situation: In the focusing regime (and anomalous dispersion) the incoherent wave packet experiences an unlimited spreading, whereas in the defocusing regime (still with anomalous dispersion) the incoherent wave packet exhibits a self-trapping. These counterintuitive results are explained in detail by a long-range Vlasov formu…

Coherence absorption and condensation induced by thermalization of incoherent nonlinear fields

We show that a conservative system of incoherent nonlinear waves exhibits, as a rule, an irreversible process of coherence transfer, in which the incoherence of the system is absorbed by the small-amplitude field, thus allowing the high-amplitude field to evolve towards a highly condensed coherent state. This process of coherence absorption results from the natural thermalization of the fields to a thermodynamic equilibrium state. The theory reveals that, contrary to a classical gas system, a wave system does not satisfy an equipartition of energy among the particles. Such a distinctive feature is the key property underlying the existence of the coherence absorption process. The coherence a…

Self-trapping of speckled light beams

A speckle beam of light breaks up into small fragments as it propagates in a standard self-focusing nonlinear material. Now, by exploiting the non-local thermal response of a material, it is possible to trap a speckle beam in a self-induced waveguide.

Discrete spectral incoherent solitons in nonlinear media with noninstantaneous response

International audience; We show theoretically that nonlinear optical media characterized by a finite response time may support the existence of discrete spectral incoherent solitons. The structure of the soliton consists of three incoherent spectral bands that propagate in frequency space toward the low-frequency components in a discrete fashion and with a constant velocity. Discrete spectral incoherent solitons do not exhibit a confinement in the space-time domain, but exclusively in the frequency domain. The kinetic theory describes in detail all the essential properties of discrete spectral incoherent solitons: A quantitative agreement has been obtained between simulations of the kinetic…

Roadmap on optical rogue waves and extreme events

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

Unified kinetic formulation of incoherent waves propagating in nonlinear media with noninstantaneous response

This article presents a unified kinetic formulation of partially coherent nonlinear optical waves propagating in a noninstantaneous response Kerr medium. We derive a kinetic equation that combines the weak Langmuir turbulence kinetic equation and a Vlasov-like equation within a general framework: It describes the evolution of the spectrum of a random field that exhibits a quasistationary statistics in the presence of a noninstantaneous nonlinear response. The kinetic equation sheds new light on the dynamics of partially coherent nonlinear waves and allows for a qualitative interpretation of the interplay between the noninstantaneous nonlinearity and the nonstationary statistics of the incoh…

Nonlinear virtues of multimode fibre

The finding that multimode optical fibres support a rich and complex mix of spatial and temporal nonlinear phenomena could yield a plethora of promising applications.

Giant collective incoherent shock waves in strongly nonlinear turbulent flows

Contrary to conventional coherent shocks, we show theoretically and experimentally that nonlocal turbulent flows lead to the emergence of large-scale incoherent shock waves, which constitute a collective phenomenon of the incoherent field as a whole.

Évènements extrêmes et turbulence optique

National audience; Nous montrons l'impact de l'incohérence dans un système hamiltonien sur l'émergence d'événements extrêmes de types ondes scélérates, en analysant l'évolution à long terme du champ optique. Trois régimes sont identifiés: le premier (i) est caractérisé par des ondes persistantes, le second (ii) est marqué par des ondes intermittentes et le dernier (iii) par de rares ondes sporadiques.

Emergence of extreme events in fiber-based nonlinear devices

We review our experimental and theoretical results showing the emergence of rogue events during light propagation in fiber-based nonlinear systems. Distinct statistical properties are underlined through parametric and Raman amplifications, supercontinuum generation and optical turbulence.

NONLINEAR OPTICS Nonlinear virtues of multimode fibre

The finding that multimode optical bres support a rich and complex mix of spatial and temporal nonlinear phenomena could yield a plethora of promising applications.

Role of topological phase-defects in the parametric generation process

Abstract We show that topological phase-defects are spontaneously generated from noise fluctuations in the degenerate configuration of the parametric interaction. These localized coherent structures are shown to affect the coherence properties of the parametrically generated field. It is shown that the emergence of coherence in the fundamental field relies on a previously unrecognized process of mutual annihilation of pairs of neighboring phase-defects. More precisely, the density of phase-defects N , and the time correlation τ c of the generated field, are shown to exhibit a power-law behavior with the propagation length, i.e., τ c ∝ z 1 / 4 , N ∝ z - 1 / 4 .

Modélisation mathématique et étude expérimentale des instabilités non-linéaires, des vagues scélérates et des phénomènes extrêmes

Observation of the kinetic condensation of classical waves

International audience; The observation of Bose-Einstein condensation, in which particle interactions lead to a thermodynamic transition into a single, macroscopically populated coherent state, is a triumph of modern physics(1-5). It is commonly assumed that this transition is a quantum process, relying on quantum statistics, but recent studies in wave turbulence theory have suggested that classical waves with random phases can condense in a formally identical manner(6-9). In complete analogy with gas kinetics, particle velocities map to wavepacket k-vectors, collisions are mimicked by four-wave mixing, and entropy principles drive the system towards an equipartition of energy. Here, we use…

Wave turbulence and thermalization of random nonlinear waves

International audience

Thermalization of incoherent nonlinear waves

International audience

Long-Range interaction of temporal incoherent solitons

Contrary to conventional solitons, temporal incoherent solitons are sustained by a defocusing nonlinearity with anomalous dispersion and exhibit a non-mutual attractive-repulsive interaction. We explain these results by a long-range Vlasov formalism.

Impact of self-steepening on incoherent dispersive spectral shocks and collapse-like spectral singularities

International audience; Incoherent dispersive shock waves and collapselike singularities have been recently predicted to occur in the spectral evolution of an incoherent optical wave that propagates in a noninstantaneous nonlinear medium. Here we extend this work by considering the generalized nonlinear Schrödinger equation. We show that self-steepening significantly affects these incoherent spectral singularities: (i) It leads to a delay in the development of incoherent dispersive shocks, and (ii) it arrests the incoherent collapse singularity. Furthermore, we show that the spectral collapselike behavior can be exploited to achieve a significant enhancement (by two orders of magnitudes) of…

Observation of classical optical wave condensation

We demonstrate the nonlinear condensation of classical optical waves. The condensation is observed directly, as a function of nonlinearity and wave kinetic energy, in a self-defocusing photorefractive crystal.

Experimental signature of optical wave thermalization through supercontinuum generation in photonic crystal fiber

International audience; We report an experimental, numerical and theoretical study of the incoherent regime of supercontinuum generation in a two zero dispersion wavelengths fiber. By using a simple experimental setup, we show that the phenomenon of spectral broadening inherent to supercontinuum generation can be described as a thermalization process, which is characterized by an irreversible evolution of the optical field towards a thermal equilibrium state. In particular, the thermodynamic equilibrium spectrum predicted by the kinetic wave theory is characterized by a double peak structure, which has been found in quantitative agreement with the numerical simulations without adjustable pa…

Observation of the condensation of classical waves

We report a theoretical, numerical and experimental study of condensation of classical optical waves. The condensation of observed directly, as a function of nonlinearity and wave kinetic energy, in a self-defocusing photorefractive crystal.

Temporal coherence in mirrorless optical parametric oscillators

International audience; One of the unique features of mirrorless optical parametric oscillators based on counterpropagating three-wave interactions is the narrow spectral width of the wave generated in the backward direction. In this work, we in- vestigate experimentally and numerically the influence that a strong phase modulation in the pump has on the spectral bandwidths of the parametric waves and on the efficiency of the nonlinear interaction. The effects of group-velocity mismatch and group-velocity dispersion are elucidated. In particular, it is shown that the substan- tial increase in temporal coherence of the backward-generated wave can be obtained even for pumping with a temporally…

Optical wave turbulence: Toward a unified nonequilibrium thermodynamic formulation of statistical nonlinear optics

International audience; The nonlinear propagation of coherent optical fields has been extensively explored in the framework of nonlinear optics, while the linear propagation of incoherent fields has been widely studied in the framework of statistical optics. However, these two fundamental fields of optics have been mostly developed independently of each other, so that a satisfactory understanding of statistical nonlinear optics is still lacking. This article is aimed at reviewing a unified theoretical formulation of statistical nonlinear optics on the basis of the wave turbulence theory, which provides a nonequilibrium thermodynamic description of the system of incoherent nonlinear waves. W…

Spectral long-range interaction of temporal incoherent solitons.

We study the interaction of temporal incoherent solitons sustained by a highly noninstantaneous (Raman-like) nonlinear response. The incoherent solitons exhibit a nonmutual interaction, which can be either attractive or repulsive depending on their relative initial distance. The analysis reveals that incoherent solitons exhibit a long-range interaction in frequency space, which is in contrast with the expected spectral short-range interaction described by the usual approach based on the Raman-like spectral gain curve. Both phenomena of anomalous interaction and spectral long-range behavior of incoherent solitons are described in detail by a long-range Vlasov equation.

Rogue wave description: Rational solitons and wave turbulence theory

We show that rogue waves can emerge from optical turbulence and that their coherent deterministic description provided by the rational solutions is compatible with the statistical description provided by the wave turbulence theory.

All-optical regeneration of polarization of a 40 Gbit/s return-to-zero telecommunication signal

International audience; We report all-optical regeneration of the state of polarization of a 40 Gbit/s return-to-zero telecommunication signal. The device discussed here consists of a 6.2-km-long nonzero dispersion-shifted fiber, with low polarization mode dispersion, pumped from the output end by a backward propagating wave coming from either an external continuous source or a reflection of the signal. An initially scrambled signal acquires a degree of polarization close to 100% toward the polarization generator output. All-optical regeneration is confirmed by means of polarization and bit-error-rate measurements as well as real-time observation of the eye diagrams. We show that the physic…

Thermodynamic description of supercontinuum generation

International audience

Toward a wave turbulence formulation of statistical nonlinear optics

International audience; During this last decade, several remarkable phenomena inherent to the nonlinear propagation of incoherent optical waves have been reported in the literature. This article is aimed at providing a generalized wave turbulence kinetic formulation of random nonlinear waves governed by the nonlinear Schrodinger equation in the presence of a nonlocal or a noninstantaneous nonlinear response function. Depending on the amount of nonlocal (noninstantaneous) nonlinear interaction and the amount of inhomogeneous (nonstationary) statistics of the incoherent wave, different types of kinetic equations are obtained. In the spatial domain, when the incoherent wave exhibits fluctuatio…

Anomalous thermalization of nonlinear optical waves

We report theoretically and experimentally an anomalous thermalization process characterized by an irreversible evolution of the waves towards a novel family of equilibrium states of a fundamental different nature than the standard thermodynamic equilibrium state.

Incoherent Dispersive Shocks and Spectral Collapse

We predict the existence of incoherent dispersive shock waves and collapse-like singularities that occur in the spectral evolution of incoherent optical waves propagating in a noninstantaneous nonlinear medium.

Complex behaviour of a ray in a periodically segmented waveguide

International audience

Catastrophic process of coherence degradation

We predict a catastrophic process of coherence degradation characterized by a virtually unlimited spectral broadening of the waves. This effect is described by self-similar solutions of the kinetic equations inherent to the wave turbulence theory.

Incoherent solitons and condensation processes

International audience; We study the nonlinear interaction of partially incoherent nonlinear optical waves. We show that, in spite of the incoherence of the waves, coherent phase effects may play a relevant role during the propagation, in contrast with the usual wave turbulence description of the interaction. These nonlinear phase effects may lead the system to unexpected processes of self-organization, such as condensation, or incoherent soliton generation in instantaneous response nonlinear media. Such self-organization processes may be characterized by a reduction of the non-equilibrium entropy, which violates the Boltzmann's H-theorem of entropy growth inherent to the wave turbulence th…

Condensation of classical optical waves beyond the cubic nonlinear Schrodinger equation

International audience; A completely classical nonlinear wave is known to exhibit a process of condensation whose thermodynamic properties are analogous to those of the genuine Bose-Einstein condensation. So far this phenomenon of wave condensation has been studied essentially in the framework of the nonlinear Schrodinger (NLS) equation with a pure cubic Kerr nonlinearity. We study wave condensation by considering two representative generalizations of the NLS equation that are relevant to the context of nonlinear optics, the nonlocal nonlinearity and the saturable nonlinearity. For both cases we derive analytical expressions of the condensate fraction in the weakly and the strongly nonlinea…

Instabilities of optical solitons and Hamiltonian singular solutions in a medium of finite extension

International audience; We analyze the role of soliton solutions and Hamiltonian singularities in the dynamics of counterpropagating waves in a medium of finite spatial extension. The soliton solution can become unstable due to the finite extension of the system. We show that the spatiotemporal dynamics then relaxes toward a Hamiltonian singular state of a nature different than that of the soliton state. This phenomenon can be explained through a geometrical analysis of the singularities of the stationary Hamiltonian system.

X-shaped space-time coherence in optical parametric generation

We study the spatiotemporal coherence properties of superfluorescence radiation generated in optical parametric amplification of quantum noise. We show that the angular dispersion properties of the spatiotemporal spectra, measured in different phase-matching conditions, lead to a clear X-shaped structure of the mutual correlation function of the radiation. Within a statistical picture, we interpret the generated superfluorescence as a stochastic “gas” of quasistationary modes characterized by a skewed correlation in the spatiotemporal domain, with characteristics similar to linear and nonlinear X waves not describable within a separable approach in space and time.

Condensation of classical optical waves

We demonstrate the nonlinear condensation of classical optical waves. The condensation is observed directly, as a function of nonlinearity and wave kinetic energy, in a self-defocusing photorefractive crystal.

Emergence of X-Shaped Spatiotemporal Coherence in Optical Waves

Considering the problem of parametric nonlinear interaction, we report the experimental observation of electromagnetic waves characterized by an X-shaped spatiotemporal coherence; i.e., coherence is neither spatial nor temporal, but skewed along specific spatiotemporal trajectories. The application of the usual, purely spatial or temporal, measures of coherence would erroneously lead to the conclusion that the field is fully incoherent. Such hidden coherence has been identified owing to an innovative diagnostic technique based on simultaneous analysis of both the spatial and temporal spectra.

Self-polarization effect in the middle point of an optical fiber

In this paper, we report both numerically and experimentally an unexpected phenomenon of self-polarization occurring in the middle point of an isotropic optical fiber when two uncorrelated partially polarized waves are simultaneously injected at the ends of the fiber. More precisely, we demonstrate that two counterpropagating waves of equal intensity exhibit a spontaneous organization of their polarization states around two pools of attraction just in the middle point of propagation, and then both recover a partially polarized state at their respective fiber outputs. The self-polarization effect then remains hidden within the optical fiber in the sense that no apparent sign of this process …

Breakdown of weak-turbulence and nonlinear wave condensation

Abstract The formation of a large-scale coherent structure (a condensate) as a result of the long time evolution of the initial value problem of a classical partial differential nonlinear wave equation is considered. We consider the nonintegrable and unforced defocusing NonLinear Schrodinger (NLS) equation as a representative model. In spite of the formal reversibility of the NLS equation, the nonlinear wave exhibits an irreversible evolution towards a thermodynamic equilibrium state. The equilibrium state is characterized by a homogeneous solution (condensate), with small-scale fluctuations superposed (uncondensed particles), which store the information necessary for “time reversal”. We an…

Line of polarization attraction in highly birefringent optical fibers

We investigate the phenomenon of polarization attraction in a highly birefringent fiber. This polarization process originates from the nonlinear interaction of two counter-propagating beams. We show that all polarization states of the forward (signal) beam are attracted toward a specific line of polarization states on the surface of the Poincare sphere, whose characteristics are determined by the polarization state of the injected backward (pump) beam. This phenomenon of polarization attraction takes place without any loss of energy for the signal beam. The stability of different stationary solutions is also discussed through intensive numerical simulations. On the basis of mathematical tec…

Control of signal coherence in parametric frequency mixing with incoherent pumps: Narrowband mid-infrared light generation by downconversion of broadband amplified spontaneous emission source at 1550 nm

International audience; We study, with numerical simulations using the generalized nonlinear envelope equation, the processes of optical parametric and difference- and sum-frequency generation (SFG) with incoherent pumps in optical media with both quadratic and third-order nonlinearity, such as periodically poled lithium niobate. With ultrabroadband amplified spontaneous emission pumps or continua (spectral widths > 10 THz), group-velocity matching of a near-IR pump and a short-wavelength mid-IR (MIR) idler in optical parametric generation may lead to more than 15-fold relative spectral narrowing of the generated MIR signal. Moreover, the SFG process may also lead to 6-fold signal coherence…

Wave-turbulence approach of supercontinuum generation: Influence of self-steepening and higher-order dispersion

International audience; We analyze the influence of self-steepening and higher-order dispersion on the process of optical wave thermalization. This study is aimed at developing a thermodynamic formulation of supercontinuum generation in photonic crystal fibers. In the highly nonlinear regime of supercontinuum generation, the optical field exhibits a turbulent dynamics that may be described by the kinetic wave theory. In this respect, the phenomenon of spectral broadening inherent to supercontinuum generation may be interpreted as a natural process of thermalization, which is characterized by an irreversible evolution of the optical field toward a thermodynamic equilibrium state. The numeric…

A universal optical all-fiber omnipolarizer

International audience; Wherever the polarization properties of a light beam are of concern, polarizers and polarizing beamsplitters (PBS) are indispensable devices in linear-, nonlinear- and quantum-optical schemes. By the very nature of their operation principle, transformation of incoming unpolarized or partially polarized beams through these devices introduces large intensity variations in the fully polarized outcoming beam(s). Such intensity fluctuations are often detrimental, particularly when light is post-processed by nonlinear crystals or other polarization-sensitive optic elements. Here we demonstrate the unexpected capability of light to self-organize its own state-of-polarizatio…

All-Optical Polarization Control for Telecom Applications

We describe a phenomenon of self-organization of the light state-of-polarization in optical fibers based on a nonlinear cross-polarization interaction between an incident signal and its backward replica. Several proof-of-principles for telecom applications are reported.

Rogue waves, rational solitons and wave turbulence theory

International audience; Considering a simple one dimensional nonlinear Schrödinger optical model, we study the existence of rogue wave events in the highly incoherent state of the system and compare them with the recently identified hierarchy of rational soliton solutions. We show that rogue waves can emerge in the genuine turbulent regime and that their coherent deterministic description provided by the rational soliton solutions is compatible with an accurate statistical description of the random wave provided by the wave turbulence theory. Furthermore, the simulations reveal that even in the weakly nonlinear regime, the nonlinearity can play a key role in the emergence of an individual r…

Resonances in classical and quantum hamiltonian systems

International audience

Polarization control in spun and telecommunication optical fibers

International audience; We consider the counterpropagating interaction of a signal and a pump beam in a spun fiber and in a randomly birefringent fiber, the latter being relevant to optical telecommunication systems. On the basis of a geometrical analysis of the Hamiltonian singularities of the system, we provide a complete understanding of the phenomenon of polarization attraction in these two systems, which allows to achieve a control of the polarization state of the signal beam by adjusting the polarization of the pump. In spun fibers, all polarization states of the signal beam are attracted toward a specific line of polarization states on the Poincaré sphere, whose characteristics are d…

Temporal Dynamics of Incoherent Nonlinear Waves

We review different formalisms describing incoherent waves: the wave turbulence kinetic equation, the Vlasov equation in analogy with Gravitation, the weak Langmuir turbulence equation describing spectral solitons and incoherent dispersive shocks.

Thermalization of random nonlinear waves: Application to optical waves

International audience

Polarization and modal attractors in conservative counterpropagating four-wave interaction

An experimental and theoretical study of the resonant four-wave interaction scheme in the counterpropagating configuration reveals the existence of a novel attraction process in Hamiltonian systems. We show analytically that it is the specificity of the boundary conditions inherent in the counterpropagating configuration that makes attraction dynamics possible in spite of the reversible nature of the four-wave interaction. In the context of optics, this novel dynamical feature could be the basic mechanism of a universal polarizer performing total polarization conversion of unpolarized light with, in principle, 100% efficiency.

Fast polarization scrambler based on chaotic dynamics in optical fibers

Spectral dynamics of incoherent waves with a noninstantaneous nonlinear response

We study the influence of a constant background noise on the dynamics of spectral incoherent solitons, which are incoherent structures sustained by a noninstantaneous (Raman-like) nonlinearity. As the level of the noise background increases, the incoherent wave enters a novel nonlinear regime characterized by oscillatory dynamics of the incoherent spectrum, which develop within a spectral cone during the propagation. In contrast to the conventional Raman-like spectral red shift, such incoherent spectral dynamics can be characterized by a significant spectral blue shift. On the basis of the kinetic wave theory, we derive explicit analytical expressions of these incoherent oscillatory spectra…

Vers une description thermodynamique hors-équilibre de l'optique non linéaire statistique

International audience

All-fiber based chaotic polarization scrambler

We present a fiber-based polarization scrambler founded on the nonlinear interaction between a signal and its backward replica generated and amplified by a reflective loop. The output polarization dynamic turns out to be chaotic.

Spatiotemporal Complexity in Step-Index Multimode Fibers

We study supercontinuum generation in step-index fibers with a varying number of modes. We observe new spatiotemporal effects, including evidence of multimode spectral incoherent solitons, and a universal transition to spatiotemporal complexity.

Thermalization and condensation in an incoherently pumped passive optical cavity

International audience; We study theoretically and numerically the condensation and the thermalization of classical optical waves in an incoherently pumped passive Kerr cavity. We show that the dynamics of the cavity exhibits a turbulent behavior that can be described by the wave turbulence theory. A mean-field kinetic equation is derived, which reveals that, in its high finesse regime, the cavity behaves essentially as a conservative Hamiltonian system. In particular, the intracavity turbulent field is shown to relax adiabatically toward a thermodynamic equilibrium state of energy equipartition. As a consequence of this effect of wave thermalization, the incoherent optical field undergoes …

Experimental evidence of X−shaped spatio−temporal coherence in optical waves

International audience

New concepts based on nonlinear polarization effects and Raman amplification in optical fibers

We report a theoretical analysis and experimental demonstration of a polarization attraction process at telecommunication wavelengths in isotropic optical fibers. The combined effects of polarization attraction and Raman amplification are also presented.

Shock-induced complex phase-space dynamics of strongly turbulent flows

Shock waves have been thoroughly investigated during the last century in many different branches of physics. In conservative (Hamiltonian) systems the shock singularity is regularized by weak wave dispersion, thus leading to the formation of a rapidly and regular oscillating structure, usually termed in the literature dispersive shock wave (DSW), see e.g. [1]. Here, we show that this fundamental singular process of DSW formation can break down in a system of incoherent nonlinear waves. We consider the strong turbulent regime of a system of nonlocal nonlinear optical waves. We report theoretically and experimentally a characteristic transition: Strengthening the nonlocal character of the non…

Incoherent dispersive shocks in the spectral evolution of random waves

We predict theoretically and numerically the existence of incoherent dispersive shock waves. They manifest themselves as an unstable singular behavior of the spectrum of incoherent waves that evolve in a noninstantaneous nonlinear environment. This phenomenon of "spectral wave breaking" develops in the weakly nonlinear regime of the random wave. We elaborate a general theoretical formulation of these incoherent objects on the basis of a weakly nonlinear statistical approach: a family of singular integro-differential kinetic equations is derived, which provides a detailed deterministic description of the incoherent dispersive shock wave phenomenon.

A universal all-fiber Omnipolarizer

We report the experimental observation of self-polarization of light in optical fibers through a counter-propagating four-wave mixing between an incident signal and its backward replica. An efficient self-polarization of a 40-Gbit/s signal is demonstrated.

Singular tori as attractors of four-wave-interaction systems

We study the spatiotemporal dynamics of the Hamiltonian four-wave interaction in its counterpropagating configuration. The numerical simulations reveal that, under rather general conditions, the four-wave system exhibits a relaxation process toward a stationary state. Considering the Hamiltonian system associated to the stationary state, we provide a global geometrical view of all the stationary solutions of the system. The analysis reveals that the stationary state converges exponentially toward a pinched torus of the Hamiltonian system in the limit of an infinite nonlinear medium. The singular torus thus plays the role of an attractor for the spatiotemporal wave system. The topological pr…

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

National audience

Thermalization of the dispersive three-wave interaction

We investigate the role of dispersion effects on the long-term evolution of the nonlinear three-wave interaction. We show that the three waves exhibit, as a general rule, an irreversible evolution towards a thermodynamic equilibrium state in which they propagate with identical velocities. As a result of this thermalization process, the three-wave system is driven away from spatio-temporal resonance, so that the equilibrium state does not satisfy the (phase-matching) resonant conditions of energy and momentum conservation for the averaged frequencies. Moreover, we show that the interplay between temporal dispersion and spatial diffraction leads to the emergence of a peculiar equilibrium stat…

Toward a thermodynamic description of supercontinuum generation

International audience; We consider the incoherent nonlinear regime of the supercontinuum generation process in optical fibers. We show that, under certain conditions, the phenomenon of spectral broadening inherent to the supercontinuum generation may be described by simple thermodynamic arguments based on the kinetic wave theory. Accordingly, the supercontinuum generation process may be regarded as a thermalization process, which is characterized by an irreversible evolution of the optical field toward a thermodynamic equilibrium state, i.e., the state of maximum nonequilibrium entropy.

Giant collective incoherent shock waves in strong turbulence

Contrary to conventional coherent shocks, we show theoretically and experimentally that nonlocal turbulent flows lead to the emergence of large-scale incoherent shock waves, which constitute a collective phenomenon of the incoherent field as a whole.

Temporal spying and concealing process in fibre-optic data transmission systems through polarization bypass

Recent research has been focused on the ability to manipulate a light beam in such a way to hide, namely to cloak, an event over a finite time or localization in space. The main idea is to create a hole or a gap in the spatial or time domain so as to allow for an object or data to be kept hidden for a while and then to be restored. By enlarging the field of applications of this concept to telecommunications, researchers have recently reported the possibility to hide transmitted data in an optical fibre. Here we report the first experimental demonstration of perpetual temporal spying and blinding process of optical data in fibre-optic transmission line based on polarization bypass. We succes…

Incoherent Soliton Turbulence in Nonlocal Nonlinear Media

The long-term behavior of a modulationally unstable nonintegrable system is known to be characterized by the soliton turbulence self-organization process: It is thermodynamically advantageous for the system to generate a large-scale coherent soliton in order to reach the (‘‘most disordered’’) equilibrium state. We show that this universal process of self-organization breaks down in the presence of a highly nonlocal nonlinear response. A wave turbulence approach based on a Vlasov-like kinetic equation reveals the existence of an incoherent soliton turbulence process: It is advantageous for the system to self-organize into a large-scale, spatially localized, incoherent soliton structure.

Experimental evidence of X-shaped spatiotemporal coherence of superfluorescence radiation

Considering the parametric generation process in a quadratic nonlinear crystal, we report the experimental observation of optical waves characterized by a X-shaped spatiotemporal coherence, i.e. a coherence skewed along spatiotemporal trajectories.

Influence of third-order dispersion on the propagation of incoherent light in optical fibers

International audience; We study the influence of third-order dispersion effects on the propagation of an incoherent nonlinear wave in an optical fiber system. The wave spectrum is shown to exhibit a highly asymmetric deformation characterized by a lateral spectral shoulder and the subsequent formation of an unexpected constant spectral pedestal. A kinetic approach to the problem reveals the existence of an invariant that explains in detail the essential properties of such asymmetric spectral evolution of the wave.

Emergence of long-range phase coherence in nonlocal nonlinear media

The emergence of long range phase coherence among random nonlinear waves is a fascinating effect that characterizes many fundamental phenomena. For instance, the condensation of classical waves [1,2] is an important example of self-organization process that generates lot of interest as a classical analogue of quantum Bose-Einstein condensation. Wave condensation is known to be characterized by the emergence of long-range order and phase-coherence, in the sense that the correlation function of the wave amplitude does not decay at infinity. This property of long range phase coherence is fundamental, for instance for the manifestation of superfluid behaviors, or the generation of Bogoliubov so…

DH_Results_XORedData_100samplesDelay.pdf

Results of the dieharder tests