Observation of a group of dark rogue waves in a telecommunication optical fiber

Abstract

Over the past decade, the rogue wave debate has stimulated the comparison of predictions and observations among different branches of wave physics, particularly between hydrodynamics and optics, in situations where analogous dynamical behaviors can be identified, thanks to the use of common universal models. Although the scalar nonlinear Schrödinger equation (NLSE) has constantly played a central role for rogue wave investigations, moving beyond the standard NLSE model is relevant and needful for describing more general classes of physical systems and applications. In this direction, the coupled NLSEs are known to play a pivotal role for the understanding of the complex wave dynamics in hydrodynamics and optics. Benefiting from the advanced technology of high-speed telecommunication-grade components, and relying on a careful design of the nonlinear propagation of orthogonally-polarized optical pump waves in a randomly birefringent telecom fiber, this work explores, both theoretically and experimentally, the rogue wave dynamics governed by such coupled NLSEs. We report, for the first time, the evidence of a group of three dark rogue waves, the so-called dark three-sister rogue waves, where experiments, numerics, and analytics show a very good consistency.

General Rogue Waves in the Boussinesq Equation

“…Analytical expressions of rogue waves have been derived in a large number of integrable nonlinear wave equations, such as the nonlinear Schrödinger (NLS) equation [19][20][21][22][23][24][25][26][27][28], the derivative NLS equation [29,30], the three-wave interaction equation [31], the Davey-Stewartson equations [32,33], and many others [34][35][36][37][38][39][40][41][42][43][44][45][46][47][48][49][50][51][52][53]. Rogue waves have also been observed in water tanks [54,55] and optical fibers [56][57][58].…”

Surface-polaritonic phase singularities and multimode polaritonic frequency combs via dark rogue-wave excitation in hybrid plasmonic waveguide

“…For two polarization components, the corresponding set of two coupled NLSEs is completely integrable. In this framework [55], polarizationmodulation instability was found to be the origin of coupled bright or dark rogue waves [40,56].…”

“…More generally, dissipative rogue waves and breathers [36] have potential applications to nonlinear systems such as mode-locked lasers [37] and frequencycomb generators [38]. By contrast, dark rogue waves were only observed during multimode polarized light propagation in a telecommunication fiber to date [39,40]. Besides, their application remains unexplored.Previous investigations show that the interface between a dielectric and a metallic layer is highly nonlinear and SPWs hence can propagate as various types of nonlinear optical waves such as soliton, rogue waves and breathers [41,42].…”

“…More generally, dissipative rogue waves and breathers [36] have potential applications to nonlinear systems such as mode-locked lasers [37] and frequencycomb generators [38]. By contrast, dark rogue waves were only observed during multimode polarized light propagation in a telecommunication fiber to date [39,40]. Besides, their application remains unexplored.…”

“…We obtain the first-order perturbative solution by linearizing the coupled Maxwell-Bloch equations. This linearization is achieved by substituting equations (40) and (41) into Maxwell-Bloch equations. Then, we obtain the first-order solution of the density-matrix elements in this hybrid waveguide can be expressed as…”