Vectorial dispersive shock waves in optical fibers

Abstract

Dispersive shock waves are a universal phenomenon encountered in many fields of science, ranging from fluid dynamics, Bose-Einstein condensates and geophysics. It has been established that light behaves as a perfect fluid when propagating in an optical medium exhibiting a weakly self-defocusing nonlinearity. Consequently, this analogy has become attractive for the exploration of dispersive shock wave phenomena. Here, we observe of a novel class of vectorial dispersive shock waves in nonlinear fiber optics. Analogous to blast-waves, identified in inviscid perfect fluids, vectorial dispersive shock waves are triggered by a nonuniform double piston imprinted on a continuous-wave probe via nonlinear cross-phase modulation, produced by an orthogonally-polarized pump pulse. The nonlinear phase potential imparted on the probe results in the formation of an expanding zone of zero intensity surrounded by two repulsive oscillating fronts, which move away from each other with opposite velocities.

Vectorial dispersive shock waves on an incoherent landscape

“…We further explore here the nonlinear interaction occurring between the intense pulsed signal and the orthogonally polarized weak probe, especially in presence of partial incoherence. We provide here a set of experimental results carried at telecommunications wavelengths that have been closely confirmed by numerical simulations based on two coupled nonlinear Schrödinger equations corresponding to a simplified Manakov model [5].…”

“…This regularization phenomenon then causes the onset of fast nonstationary oscillating fan structures called dispersive shock waves (DSWs) [2,3] or undular bores [4] (in analogy with the classical "mascaret" which can be observed in specific river estuaries). Recently, we theoretically introduced and experimentally demonstrated a new type of vectorial DSW in optical fibers [5]. In contrast to previous studies, here a gradient catastrophe is generated on the phase of a CW probe through cross-phase modulation (XPM) induced by a pulsed signal owing to a vectorial configuration, leading to the equivalent of an optical axe [6].…”

Linear and Nonlinear Fiber Propagation of Partially Coherent Fields Exhibiting Temporal Correlations

“…Note that recently, the study of a strong coherent field on a weak signal probe has been discussed for a similar experimental configuration. [ 28 ] In the next section, we implement an experimental framework to study the linear and nonlinear propagation of the random fields u and v in optical fiber.…”

Dynamics of photon fluid flows driven by optical pistons

“…Spectacular manifestations of such process occurs in natural phenomena (strong tidal bores going upstream along river estuaries [3] or atmospheric gravity waves [4]), and has been sporadically reproduced in the lab in the past [5][6][7]. However, it is only recently that DSWs has been systematically observed and understood under reproducible experimental conditions in areas as different as bulk [8][9][10][11] or fiber [12][13][14][15][16][17][18] nonlinear optics, superfluid Helium [19], dilute Bose-Einstein condensates (BEC) [20,21], electron waves [22], viscous fluid conduits [23] and water waves in flumes [24], spin waves in magnetic films [25], and also investigated in disordered media [26], incoherent waves [27,28], and in connection to radiative phenomena [29][30][31][32].…”