In the theory of optical gap solitons, slowly-moving finite-amplitude Lorentzian solutions are found to mediate the transition from bright to coexistent dark-antidark solitary wave pairs when the laser frequency is detuned out of the proper edge of a dynamical photonic bandgap. Catastrophe theory is applied to give a geometrical description of this strongly asymmetrical 'morphing' process.
Perturbing the external control parameters of nonlinear systems leads to dramatic changes of its bifurcations. A branch of singular theory, the catastrophe theory, analyses the generating function that depends on state and control parameters. It predicts the formation of bifurcations as geometrically stable structures and categorizes them hierarchically. We evaluate the catastrophe diffraction integral with respect to two-dimensional cross-sections through the control parameter space and thus transfer these bifurcations to optics, where they manifest as caustics in transverse light fields. For…
We investigate the propagation of a dark beam in a defocusing medium in the strong nonlinear regime. We observe for the first time a shock fan filled with non-interacting one-dimensional grey solitons that emanates from a gradient catastrophe developing around a null of the optical intensity. Remarkably this scenario turns out to be very robust, persisting also when the material nonlocal response averages the nonlinearity over dimensions much larger than the emerging soliton filaments.
We consider a wide-aperture surface-emitting laser with a saturable absorber section subjected to time-delayed feedback. We adopt the mean-field approach assuming a single longitudinal mode operation of the solitary VCSEL. We investigate cavity soliton dynamics under the effect of time- delayed feedback in a self-imaging configuration where diffraction in the external cavity is negligible. Using bifurcation analysis, direct numerical simulations and numerical path continuation methods, we identify the possible bifurcations and map them in a plane of feedback parameters. We show that for both t…
Period doubling is a universal bifurcation of central importance in all disciplines of nonlinear science, which generally signals the existence of chaotic dynamics in the vicinity of the system parameters. Although observed in diverse ultrafast laser configurations, there is still no consensus on its physical origin. The observations also include other types of pulsating dissipative solitons, with either short or long periods. Real time spectral characterization allows to investigate optical spectral oscillations, whose features reveal the intracavity dynamics leading to instabilities. Followi…
We report a new type of symmetry-breaking bifurcation of solitons in optical systems with parity-time-symmetric potentials. In this bifurcation, the two bifurcated branches of asymmetric solitons exhibit opposite stability, which contrasts all previous symmetry-breaking bifurcations in conservative and non-conservative systems. We show that this novel symmetry-breaking bifurcation can be exploited to achieve unidirectional propagation of high-intensity light beams in parity-time-symmetric potentials.
Bifurcation structure of soliton self-injection locking in microresonators
Emergent Complexity in Physical Systems Laboratory (ECPS), Swiss Federal Institute of Technology Lausanne (EPFL)(复杂物理系统实验室,洛桑联邦理工学院);Laboratoire Temps-Fréquence, Université de Neuchâtel(时间频率实验室,纳沙泰尔大学)
Symmetry breaking is reported for continuous families of solitons in the nonlinear Schrödinger equation with a two-dimensional complex potential. This symmetry-breaking bifurcation is forbidden in generic complex potentials. However, for a special class of partially parity-time-symmetric potentials, such symmetry breaking is allowed. At the bifurcation point, two branches of asymmetric solitons bifurcate out from the base branch of symmetry-unbroken solitons. Stability of these solitons near the bifurcation point are also studied, and two novel stability properties for the bifurcated asymmetri…
We demonstrate that the amplitudes of optical solitons in nonlinear multisequence optical waveguide coupler systems with weak linear and cubic gain-loss exhibit large stable oscillations along ultra-long distances. The large stable oscillations are caused by supercritical Hopf bifurcations of the equilibrium states of the Lotka-Volterra (LV) models for dynamics of soliton amplitudes. The predictions of the LV models are confirmed by numerical simulations with the coupled cubic nonlinear Schrödinger (NLS) propagation models with $2 \le N \le 4$ pulse sequences. Thus, we provide the first demons…
We report on the experimental observation of period-doubling bifurcation of dissipative-soliton-resonance (DSR) pulses in a fiber laser passively mode-locked by using the nonlinear optical loop mirror. Increasing the pump power of the fiber laser, we show that temporally a stable, uniform DSR pulse train could be transformed into a period-doubling state, exhibiting two sets of pulse parameters between the adjacent cavity roundtrip. It is found that DSR pulses in the period-doubling state could maintain the typical feature of DSR pulse: fixed pulse peak power and linear variation in pulse width…
We analyze the existence, stability, and internal modes of gap solitons in nonlinear periodic systems described by the nonlinear Schrodinger equation with a sinusoidal potential, such as photonic crystals, waveguide arrays, optically-induced photonic lattices, and Bose-Einstein condensates loaded onto an optical lattice. We study bifurcations of gap solitons from the band edges of the Floquet-Bloch spectrum, and show that gap solitons can appear near all lower or upper band edges of the spectrum, for focusing or defocusing nonlinearity, respectively. We show that, in general, two types of gap …
We study symmetry breaking of solitons in the framework of a nonlinear fractional Schrödinger equation (NLFSE), characterized by its Lévy index, with cubic nonlinearity and a symmetric double-well potential. Asymmetric, symmetric, and antisymmetric soliton solutions are found, with stable asymmetric soliton solutions emerging from unstable symmetric and antisymmetric ones by way of symmetry-breaking bifurcations. Two different bifurcation scenarios are possible. First, symmetric soliton solutions undergo a symmetry-breaking bifurcation of the pitchfork type, which gives rise to a branch of asy…
Collision refers to a striking nonlinear interaction in dissipative systems, revealing the particle-like properties of solitons. In dual-wavelength mode-locked fiber lasers, collisions are inherent and periodic. However, how collisions influence the dynamical transitions in the dual-wavelength mode-locked state has still not been explored. In our research, dispersion management triggers the complex interactions between solitons in the cavity. We reveal the smooth or reversible Hopf-type bifurcation transitions of dual-color soliton molecules (SMs) during collision by real-time spectral measure…
We consider the model of fiber-laser cavities near the zero-dispersion point, based on the complex Ginzburg-Landau equation with the cubic-quintic nonlinearity, including the third-order dispersion (TOD) term. It is well known that this model supports stable dissipative solitons. We demonstrate that the same model gives rise to several families of robust bound states of the solitons, which exists only in the presence of the TOD. There are both stationary and dynamical bound states, with oscillating separation between the bound solitons. Stationary states are multistable, corresponding to diffe…
We report symmetry-breaking and restoring bifurcations of solitons in a fractional Schrödinger equation with the cubic or cubic-quintic (CQ) nonlinearity and a parity-time (PT)-symmetric potential, which may be realized in optical cavities. Solitons are destabilized at the bifurcation point, and, in the case of the CQ nonlinearity, the stability is restored by an inverse bifurcation. Two mutually-conjugate branches of ghost states (GSs), with complex propagation constants, are created by the bifurcation, solely in the case of the fractional diffraction. While GSs are not true solutions, direct…
We describe the results of the two methods we developed to calculate the stationary nonlinear solutions in one-dimensional plasmonic slot waveguides made of a finite-thickness nonlinear dielectric core surrounded by metal regions. These two methods are described in detail in the preceding article [Walasik et al., submitted]. For symmetric waveguides, we provide the nonlinear dispersion curves obtained using the two methods and compare them. We describe the well known low-order modes and the higher-modes that were not described before. All the modes are classified into two families: modes with …
It is well known that the two-dimensional (2D) nonlinear Schrödinger equation (NLSE) with the cubic-quintic (CQ) nonlinearity supports a family of stable fundamental solitons, as well as solitary vortices (alias vortex rings), which are stable for sufficiently large values of the norm. We study stationary localized modes in a symmetric linearly coupled system of two such equations, focusing on asymmetric states. The model may describe "optical bullets" in dual-core nonlinear optical waveguides (including spatiotemporal vortices that were not discussed before), or a Bose-Einstein condensate (BE…
We demonstrate existence of waves localized at the interface of two nonlinear periodic media with different coefficients of the cubic nonlinearity via the one-dimensional Gross--Pitaevsky equation. We call these waves the surface gap solitons (SGS). In the case of smooth symmetric periodic potentials, we study analytically bifurcations of SGS's from standard gap solitons and determine numerically the maximal jump of the nonlinearity coefficient allowing for the SGS existence. We show that the maximal jump vanishes near the thresholds of bifurcations of gap solitons. In the case of continuous p…
We analyze the existence, bifurcations, and shape transformations of one-dimensional gap solitons (GSs) in the first finite bandgap induced by a periodic potential built into materials with local self-focusing and nonlocal self-defocusing nonlinearities. Originally stable on-site GS modes become unstable near the upper edge of the bandgap with the introduction of the nonlocal self-defocusing nonlinearity with a small nonlocality radius. Unstable off-site GSs bifurcate into a new branch featuring single-humped, double-humped, and flat-top modes due to the competition between local and nonlocal …
Stability of soliton families in one-dimensional nonlinear Schroedinger equations with non-parity-time (PT)-symmetric complex potentials is investigated numerically. It is shown that these solitons can be linearly stable in a wide range of parameter values both below and above phase transition. In addition, a pseudo-Hamiltonian-Hopf bifurcation is revealed, where pairs of purely-imaginary eigenvalues in the linear-stability spectra of solitons collide and bifurcate off the imaginary axis, creating oscillatory instability, which resembles Hamiltonian-Hopf bifurcations of solitons in Hamiltonian…
We examine the dynamics of a dissipative photonic Josephson junction formed by the weak coupling of an optical soliton in a nonlinear dielectric waveguide and a co-propagating surface plasmon along a parallel metal surface with a linear dielectric spacer. We employ a heuristic model with a coupling function that depends on the soliton amplitude, and consider two phenomenological dissipation mechanisms separately: angular velocity dissipation and population imbalance dissipation. In the former dissipation mechanism, the system exhibits phase-slip phenomenon where the odd-πphase modes decay into…
We propose a detailed stability analysis of the Lugiato-Lefever model for Kerr optical frequency combs in whispering gallery mode resonators pumped in the normal dispersion regime. We analyze the spatial bifurcation structure of the stationary states depending on two parameters that are experimentally tunable, namely the pump power and the cavity detuning. Our study demonstrates that the non-trivial equilibria play an important role in this bifurcation map, as their associated eigenvalues undergo critical bifurcations that are foreshadowing the existence of localized spatial structures. In par…
We report a rich spectrum of isolated solitons residing inside ({\it embedded } into) the continuous radiation spectrum in a simple model of three-wave spatial interaction in a second-harmonic-generating planar optical waveguide equipped with a quasi-one-dimensional Bragg grating. An infinite sequence of fundamental embedded solitons are found, which differ by the number of internal oscillations. Branches of these zero-walkoff spatial solitons give rise, through bifurcations, to several secondary branches of walking solitons. The structure of the bifurcating branches suggests a multistable con…
The effect of finite boundaries in the propagation of spatial nonlocal solitons in media with cylindrical symmetry is analyzed. Using Ehrenfest's theorem together with the Green's function of the nonlinear refractive index equation, we derive an analytical expression for the force exerted on the soliton by the boundaries, verifying its validity by full numerical propagation. We show that the dynamics of the soliton are determined not only by the degree of nonlocality, but also by the boundary conditions for the refractive index. In particular, we report that a supercritical pitchfork bifurcati…
Symmetry breaking of solitons in a class of one-dimensional parity-time (PT) symmetric complex potentials with cubic nonlinearity is reported. In generic PT-symmetric potentials, such symmetry breaking is forbidden. However, in a special class of PT-symmetric potentials $V(x)=g^2(x)+αg(x)+ i g'(x)$, where $g(x)$ is a real and even function and $α$ a real constant, symmetry breaking of solitons can occur. That is, a branch of non-PT-symmetric solitons can bifurcate out from the base branch of PT-symmetric solitons when the base branch's power reaches a certain threshold. At the bifurcation poin…
We report results of numerical and analytical studies of the spontaneous symmetry breaking in solitons, both two- and one-dimensional, which are trapped in H-shaped potential profiles, built of two parallel potential troughs linked by a narrow rung in the transverse direction. This system can be implemented in self-attractive Bose-Einstein condensates (BECs), as well as in a nonlinear bulk optical waveguide.We demonstrate that the introduction of the transverse link changes the character of the symmetry-breaking bifurcation (SBB) in the system from subcritical to supercritical (in terms of the…
We address a two-dimensional nonlinear elliptic problem with a finite-amplitude periodic potential. For a class of separable symmetric potentials, we study the bifurcation of the first band gap in the spectrum of the linear Schrödinger operator and the relevant coupled-mode equations to describe this bifurcation. The coupled-mode equations are derived by the rigorous analysis based on the Fourier--Bloch decomposition and the Implicit Function Theorem in the space of bounded continuous functions vanishing at infinity. Persistence of reversible localized solutions, called gap solitons, beyond th…
We analytically and numerically study the direct soliton generation in a cw-pumped doubly resonant degenerate optical parametric oscillator via pump frequency scanning. By means of bifurcation and linear stability analysis of the homogeneous solutions, we discriminate distinctive soliton forming mechanisms and corresponding dynamics, depending on pump and signal group velocity dispersions (GVDs). To the best of our knowledge, this is the first study regarding the dynamics of pure quadratic solitons. In addition, we discuss how to extend soliton existing regime and easily access quadratic solit…
We investigate the mobility of nonlinear localized modes in a generalized discrete Ginzburg-Landau type model, describing a one-dimensional waveguide array in an active Kerr medium with intrinsic, saturable gain and damping. It is shown that exponentially localized, traveling discrete dissipative breather-solitons may exist as stable attractors supported only by intrinsic properties of the medium, i.e., in absence of any external field or symmetry-breaking perturbations. Through an interplay by the gain and damping effects, the moving soliton may overcome the Peierls-Nabarro barrier, present i…