Observation of Optical Undular Bores in Multiple Four-Wave Mixing

J Fatome,S Trillo,A Armaroli,C Finot,G Millot

doi:10.1103/physrevx.4.021022

Abstract

Undular bores, e.g., large tidal waves that travel upstream in river estuaries, are a fascinating nonlinear wave phenomenon. The conditions needed to create them also occur in optical systems. A new experiment using four-wave mixing to generate multiple undular bores and their interactions in optical fibers provides an opportunity to study them in a laboratory setting.

Highlights

Under certain regimes, the behavior of light mimics the dynamics of classical fluids and, in particular, hydrodynamical phenomena [1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9,10,11,12,13,14,15]
By exploiting an all-optical-fiber platform, we show that input modulations propagating in standard telecom fibers in the regime of weak normal dispersion lead to the formation of undular bores that mimic the typical behavior of dispersive hydrodynamics exhibited, e.g., by gravity waves and tidal bores
Recently has the subject attracted a great deal of interest, propelling important experimental results as diverse as the first absolute observation of wave packets predicted in hydrodynamics (i.e., Peregrine and Kuznetsov-Ma solitons [6,7]), the study of classical hydrodynamical instabilities (e.g., Raileigh-Taylor [8]), the characterization of extreme events such as rogue waves or tsunamis [9,10,11,12], the flow of quantum fluid of light around defects at low and supersonic speed [13], or the transition to turbulence in fiber lasers [14]

Summary

Introduction

The behavior of light mimics the dynamics of classical fluids and, in particular, hydrodynamical phenomena [1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9,10,11,12,13,14,15]. Recently has the subject attracted a great deal of interest, propelling important experimental results as diverse as the first absolute observation of wave packets predicted in hydrodynamics (i.e., Peregrine and Kuznetsov-Ma solitons [6,7]), the study of classical hydrodynamical instabilities (e.g., Raileigh-Taylor [8]), the characterization of extreme events such as rogue waves or tsunamis [9,10,11,12], the flow of quantum fluid of light around defects at low and supersonic speed [13], or the transition to turbulence in fiber lasers [14].

Objectives

Results

Conclusion