Photonic band-gap inhibition of modulational instabilities

Experimental focusing shocklike dynamics in a nonlocal optical stochastic Kerr medium

We experimentally study the propagating of an optical intensity jump discontinuity in a nonlocal stochastic Kerr focusing nematic liquid crystal cell. We show both theoretically and experimentally that nonlocality opens a route towards beam steering in our system. Indeed, the discontinuity trajectory follows a curve that bends with the injected power. Despite the stochastic nature of the medium and the constant presence of transverse instabilities, the development of a focusing shocklike dynamics is shown to survive. The distance Z_{s} for the focusing shock to occur follows a power law with the beam power P according to Z_{s}∝P^{χ}, with χ=-4/3, as for shock dynamics in self-defocusing media.

Lattice-controlled modulation instability in photorefractive feedback systems

We study the modulation instability in a two-dimensional nonlinear single feedback system with a photonic lattice and reveal a sharp transition in the instability regimes as the lattice strength is increased. For a shallow lattice, the instability modes are enhanced parallel to the lattice wave vector, while in stronger lattices, these modes are suppressed.

Nonlinear localized modes in bandgap microcavities

We study experimentally an electrically pumped GaAs-based bandgap structure based on a vertical cavity surface emitting laser (VCSEL). We demonstrate that a microcavity embedded into this bandgap VCSEL structure supports localized optical modes without any holding beam. We propose a model of surface-structured VCSELs based on a reduced dissipative wave equation for describing electromagnetic modes in such semiconductor cavities and analyze a crossover between linear and nonlinear solitonlike cavity modes.

Bright cavity polariton solitons

The lower branch of the dispersion relation of exciton polaritons in semiconductor microcavities, operating in the strong-coupling regime, contains sections of both positive and negative curvature along one spatial direction. We show that this leads to the existence of stable one-dimensional bright microcavity solitons supported by the repulsive polariton nonlinearity. To achieve localization along the second transverse direction we propose to create a special soliton waveguide by changing the cavity detuning and hence the boundary of the soliton existence in such a way that the solitons are allowed only within the stripe of the desired width.

Experimental demonstration of hyperbolic patterns

We give experimental evidence of hyperbolic patterns in a nonlinear optical resonator. Such transverse patterns are a new kind of 2D dissipative structures, characterized by a distribution of the active modes along hyperbolas in the transverse wave-vector domain, in contrast with the usual (elliptic) patterns where the active modes distribute along rings. The hyperbolic character is realized by manipulating diffraction inside the optical resonator with cylindrical lenses. We also investigate theoretically hyperbolic patterns in corresponding Swift-Hohenberg models.

Experimental control of pattern formation by photonic lattices

We study the control of modulational instability and pattern formation in a nonlinear dissipative feedback system with a periodic modulation of the material refractive index. We use a one-dimensional photonic lattice in a single-mirror feedback configuration and identify three mechanisms for pattern control: bandgap suppression of instability modes, periodicity induced pattern modes, and orientational pattern control.

Bloch cavity solitons in nonlinear resonators with intracavity photonic crystals

We predict a novel type of cavity solitons, Bloch cavity solitons, existing in nonlinear resonators with the refractive index modulated in both longitudinal and transverse directions and for both focusing (at normal diffraction) and defocusing (at anomalous diffraction) nonlinearities. We develop a modified mean-field theory and analyze the properties of these novel cavity solitons demonstrating, in particular, their substantial narrowing in the zero-diffraction regime.

Modulational instability and pattern formation in discrete dissipative systems

We report in this paper the study of modulated wave trains in the one-dimensional (1D) discrete Ginzburg-Landau model. The full linear stability analysis of the nonlinear plane wave solutions is performed by considering both the wave vector (q) of the basic states and the wave vector (Q) of the perturbations as free parameters. In particular, it is shown that a threshold exists for the amplitude and above this threshold, the induced modulational instability leads to the formation of ordered and disordered patterns. The theoretical findings have been numerically tested through direct simulations and have been found to be in agreement with the theoretical prediction. We show numerically that modulational instability is also an indicator of the presence of discrete solitons as were early predicted to exist in Ginzburg-Landau lattices.

Observation of modulational instability in discrete media with self-defocusing nonlinearity

We report what we believe is the first observation of modulation instability in the anomalous-diffraction regions of a photonic lattice. The experiments were carried out in a 1D waveguide array fabricated in a lithium niobate crystal displaying the photovoltaic self-defocusing nonlinearity, and our results are confirmed numerically by simulating the nonlinear beam propagation.