Dynamics of Dissipative Optical Wave Structures,
Abstract
The onset of spatio temporal wave structures in macroscopic systems may often be understood in terms of universal dynamical descriptions. A concept which has been successful in diverse fields of application such as hydrodynamics and biology is that the behavior of a complex nonlinear system may be well described in terms of the interaction between a small number of normal modes. The evolution of the physical system is then represented by the finite set of coordinates of this modal expansion. The transition of the system from a steady state, which corresponds to closed curves in the phase space, to a weakly turbulent state follows the universal route of the development of nonlinear modulations. In this work we discuss two important nonlinear guided optics examples of spatio temporal wave pattern generation and chaos. We consider optical feedback systems such as the fiber ring laser and the nonlinear planar waveguide Fabry-Perot resonator (FPR). We show that the modulational instability laser (MIL) is the temporal analog of a FPR: pulse train generation in a MIL occurs from the nonlinear development of a dissipative stable temporal structure. This is in contrast with pulse train generation from the conventional MI in a fiber, where the pulses in the train continuously interact and the contrast ratio strongly depends on the longitudinal coordinate along the fiber.
Document Details
- Document Type
- Technical Report
- Publication Date
- Apr 01, 1992
- Accession Number
- ADP008118
Entities
People
- M. Haelterman
- S. Trillo
- S. Wabnitz
Organizations
- Fondazione Ugo Bordoni