Plane waves in Kerr media spontaneously generate paraxial X-waves (i.e. non-dispersive and non-diffractive pulsed beams) that get amplified along propagation. This effect can be considered a form of conical emission (i.e. spatio-temporal modulational instability), and can be used as a key for the interpretation of the out of axis energy emission in the splitting process of focused pulses in normally dispersive materials. A new class of spatio-temporal localized wave patterns is identified. X-waves instability, and nonlinear X-waves, are also expected in periodical Bose condensed gases.
We study the interaction of a co-propagating finite energy Airy pulse and a soliton in a Kerr medium under third order dispersion. It is observed that a strong radiation appears when selfaccelerating Airy pulse collides with a delayed soliton in time domain. We confirm both analytically and numerically that this radiation can only be initiated in the environment of third order dispersion (TOD). The radiation frequency is red or blue shifted depending on the numeric sign of TOD parameter. We adopt a simple Si-based waveguide to validate the normalised parameter that we use for the analysis. We …
It is studied the bright spatial solitons in nonlocal defocusing Kerr media with parity-time (PT) symmetric potentials. We find that these solitons can exist and be stable over a different range of potential parameters. The influence of the degree of nonlocality on the solitons and the transverse energy flow within the stable solitons are also examined.
We show that an azimuthally-periodically-modulated bright ring "necklace" beam can self-trap in self-focusing Kerr media and can exhibit stable propagation for very large distances. These are the first bright (2+1) D beams to exhibit stable self-trapping in a system described by the cubic (2+1) D Nonlinear Schrodinger Equation (NLSE).
We report on the stationary and robust propagation of light beams with rather arbitrary and controllable intensity and dissipation transverse patterns in self-focusing Kerr media with nonlinear absorption. When nonlinear absorption is due to multi-photon ionization at high beam powers in transparent media such as glasses or air, these beams can generate multiple plasma channels with tailored geometries. Their nature and spatial characteristics are discussed in detail, as well as the laws determining their spontaneous formation from coherent superpositions of Bessel beams of different amplitude…
Using the Kantorovitch method in combination with a Gaussian ansatz, we derive the equations of motion for spatial, temporal and spatiotemporal optical propagation in a dispersive Kerr medium with a general transverse and spectral gain profile. By rewriting the variational equations as differential equations for the temporal and spatial Gaussian q parameters, optical ABCD matrices for the Kerr effect, a general transverse gain profile and nonparabolic spectral gain filtering are obtained. Further effects can easily be taken into account by adding the corresponding ABCD matrices. Applications i…
We review the latest progress and properties of the families of bright and dark one-dimensional periodic waves propagating in saturable Kerr-type and quadratic nonlinear media. We show how saturation of the nonlinear response results in appearance of stability (instability) bands in focusing (defocusing) medium, which is in sharp contrast with the properties of periodic waves in Kerr media. One of the key results discovered is the stabilization of multicolor periodic waves in quadratic media. In particular, dark-type waves are shown to be metastable, while bright-type waves are completely stab…
We study the nonlinear propagation of diffraction-free, space-time wave packets, also called time-diffracting beams because their spatiotemporal structure reproduces diffraction in time. We report on the spontaneous formation of propagation-invariant, spatiotemporally compressed pulsed beams carrying finite power from exciting time-diffracting Gaussian beams in media with cubic Kerr nonlinearity at powers below the critical power for collapse, and also with other collapse-arresting nonlinearities above the critical power. Their attraction property makes the experimental observation of the self…
Angle-resolved reflection and emission spectra of metal gratings consisting of sub-wavelength grooves and immersed into rhodamine B and rhodamine 19 solutions are presented. The measured reflection and emission dispersion diagrams reveal the surface plasmon polaritons positions and strong plasmon mediated emission enhancement, respectively. The same grating could be easily re-used for the characterization of different dye-molecules.
By use of an imaging spectrometer we map the far-field ($θ-λ$) spectra of 200 fs optical pulses that have undergone beam collapse and filamentation in a Kerr medium. By studying the evolution of the spectra with increasing input power and using a model based on stationary linear asymptotic wave modes, we are able to trace a consistent model of optical beam collapse high-lighting the interplay between conical emission, multiple pulse splitting and other effects such as spatial chirp.
We investigate the spatially and temporally resolved four-wave mixing of terahertz fields and optical pulses in large band-gap dielectrics, such as diamond. We show that it is possible to perform beam profiling and space-time resolved mapping of terahertz fields with sub-wavelength THz resolution by encoding the spatial information into an optical signal, which can then be recorded by a standard CCD camera.
A quantum theory of 3D X-shaped optical bullets in Kerr media is presented. The existence of progressive undistorted squeezed vacuum is predicted. Applications to quantum non-demolition experiments, entanglement and interferometers for gravitational waves detection are envisaged.
A scalar Wigner distribution function for describing polarized light is proposed in analogy with the treatment of spin variables in quantum kinetic theory. The formalism is applied to the propagation of circularly polarized light in nonlinear Kerr media and an extended phase space evolution equation is derived along with invariant quantities. We further consider modulation instability as well as the extension to partially coherent fields.
We introduce a mechanism to stabilize spatiotemporal solitons in Kerr nonlinear media, based on the dispersion of linear coupling between the field components forming the soliton states. Specifically, we consider solitons in a two-core guiding structure with inter-core coupling dispersion (CD). We show that CD profoundly affects properties of the solitons, causing the complete stabilization of the otherwise highly unstable spatiotemporal solitons in Kerr media with focusing nonlinearity. We also find that the presence of CD stimulates the formation of bound states, which however are unstable.
The existence of a novel type of solitons in periodic Kerr media constructed as superposition of noninteracting gap-solitons of different kinds (bright, dark and periodic) is first demonstrated. The periodic modulation of the nonlinearity is used to suppress the cross phase modulation between components to allow the superimposed beam to propagate for long distances.
Two nonlinear Kerr oscillators mutually coupled by parametric pumping are studied as a source of states entangled in photon numbers. Temporal evolution of entanglement quantified by negativity shows the effects of sudden death and birth of entanglement. Entanglement is preserved even in asymptotic states under certain conditions. The role of reservoirs at finite temperature in entanglement evolution is elucidated. Relation between generation of entangled states and violation of Cauchy-Schwartz inequality for oscillator intensities is found.
We address the properties of optical solitons in thermal nonlinear media with a local refractive index defect that is capable to trap solitons launched even close to the sample boundary despite the boundary-mediated forces that tend to deflect all beams toward the center of the sample. We show that while such forces become more pronounced with increasing the input beam power the defect can trap only light below a critical power above which solitons are ejected. The dynamics of soliton ejection and the subsequent propagation may be controlled.
We discuss the modulational instability (MI) of plane waves in nonlocal Kerr media with the sine-oscillation response function, which can model the nematic liquid crystal with negative dielectric anisotropy. The results in the framework of the nonlocal nonlinear Schrödinger equation show that the MI in this system has two extraordinary properties. First, MI exists in both cases of negative Kerr coefficient $(n_{2}<0)$ and positive Kerr coefficient $(n_{2}>0)$. Second, the maximum gain of MI is not affected by the intensity of the plane wave, and the wave number %spatial frequency of the maximu…
Surface enhanced Raman scattering mediated by surface plasmons polaritons with wave vector much larger than those of light is considered. The excitation of these polaritons and their efficient Raman scattering due to low group velocity and electric field localization at the surface is discussed for the case of two nearby surfaces. The Raman scattering depends not only on the intensity of the electric fields seen by the molecules but also on the surface plasmon density of states.
We demonstrate that, with the help of a Gaussian potential barrier, dark modes in the form of a local depression ("bubbles") can be supported by the repulsive Kerr nonlinearity in combination with fractional dimension. Similarly, W-shaped modes are supported by a double potential barrier. Families of the modes are constructed in a numerical form, and also by means of the Thomas-Fermi and variational approximations. All these modes are stable, which is predicted by computation of eigenvalues for small perturbations and confirmed by direct numerical simulations.
Powerful incoherent laser pulses can propagate in focusing Kerr media much longer distances than can coherent pulses, due to the fast phase mixing that prevents transverse filamentation. This distance is limited by 4-wave scattering, which accumulates waves at small transverse wavenumbers, where phase mixing is too slow to retain the incoherence and thus prevent the filamentation. However, we identify how this theoretical limit can be overcome by countering this accumulation through transverse heating of the pulse by random fluctuations of the refractive index. In these new regimes, the laser …
Thermo-optical effects cause a bifocusing of incoming beams in optical media, due to the birefringence created by a thermal lens that can resolve the incoming beams into two-component signals of different polarizations. We propose a non-perturbative theoretical description of the process of formation of double-pulse solitons in Kerr optical media with a thermally-induced birefringence, based on solving simultaneously the heat equation and the propagation equation for a beam in a one-dimensional medium with uniform heat flux load. By means of a non-isospectral Inverse Scattering Transform assum…
We consider propagation of optical pulses under the interplay of dispersion and Kerr non-linearity in optical fibres with impurities distributed at random uniformly on the fibre. By using a model based on the non-linear Schrodinger equation we clarify how such inhomogeneities affect different aspects such as the number of solitons present and the intensity of the signal. We also obtain the mean distance for the signal to dissipate to a given level.
