Modulational instability in metamaterials with saturable nonlinearity and higher-order dispersion

Abstract

Modulational instability (MI) in negative refractive metamaterials with saturable nonlinearity, fourth-order dispersion (FOD), and second-order nonlinear dispersion (SOND) is investigated by using standard linear stability analysis and the Drude electromagnetic model. The expression for the MI gain spectrum is obtained, which clearly reveals the influence of the saturation of the nonlinearity, FOD, and SOND parameters on the temporal MI. The evolution of the MI in negative refractive metamaterials is numerically investigated. Special attention is paid to study the effects of the higher-order dispersion terms on the formation and evolution of the solitons induced by MI. It is shown that as the third-order dispersion term increases, the solitons travel toward the right. Moreover, the magnitude of the FOD term influences considerably the number of wave trains induced by MI.