Impact of dispersion and non-Kerr nonlinearity on the modulational instability of the higher-order nonlinear Schrödinger equation

Abstract

We have studied the modulational instability (MI) of the higher-order nonlinear Schrodinger (HNLS) equation with non-Kerr nonlinearities in an optical context and presented an analytical expression for MI gain to show the effects of non-Kerr nonlinearities and higher-order dispersions on MI gain spectra. In our study, we demonstrate that MI can exist not only for the anomalous group-velocity dispersion (GVD) regime, but also in the normal GVD regime in the HNLS equation in the presence of non-Kerr quintic nonlinearities. The non-Kerr quintic nonlinear effect reduces the maximum value of the MI gain and bandwidth and plays a sensitive role over the Kerr nonlinearity, which leads to continuous wave breaking into a number of stable wave trains of ultrashort optical pulses that can be used to generate the stable supercontinuum white-light coherent sources.