Abstract
Various physical structures exhibit a fundamentally probabilistic nature over diverse scales in space and time, to the point that the demarcation line between quantum and classic laws gets blurred. Here, we characterize the probability of intermittency in the laminar-turbulence transition of a partially mode-locked fiber laser system, whose degree of coherence is deteriorated by multiple mode mixing. Two competing processes, namely the proliferation and the decay of an optical turbulent puff, determine a critical behavior for the onset of turbulence in such a nonlinear dissipative system. A new kind of polarization rogue waves is introduced at the point of transition to polarization turbulence. The probabilistic description of the puff-mediated laminar-turbulence polarization transition provides an additional degree of freedom for our understanding of the complex physics of lasers.
Highlights
The intermittent transition from laminar to turbulent wave propagation has been observed in many physical systems, ranging from galactic down to microscopic scales such as spiral galaxies, fluid motions in atmosphere and oceans, blood vessels, and even financial markets [1,2,3]
We experimentally study the probabilistic nature of intermittency in the laminar-turbulence transition of a partially mode-locked fiber laser (PML), where longitudinal modes interact via multiple wave mixing
We discover the occurrence of two competing processes: in analogy with spatial puffs in pipe flow [3], we unveil the proliferation and the decay of an optical turbulent puff, which determines the critical point leading to the onset of polarization turbulence in a fiber laser system
Summary
The intermittent transition from laminar to turbulent wave propagation has been observed in many physical systems, ranging from galactic down to microscopic scales such as spiral galaxies, fluid motions in atmosphere and oceans, blood vessels, and even financial markets [1,2,3]. The study of light propagating in nonlinear optical fibers provides an excellent testbed for advancing our understanding of the laminar-turbulent transition, based on a probabilistic description. Both highly coherent states, such as Bose-Einstein condensate-like [7] or nonlinear photon superfluids [8], and low coherent states such as deterministic chaos have been investigated in theory and identified in lightwave experiments [9]. It has been proved that with an increase of pump power or cavity length, turbulence arises due to the spatial breakdown of coherence [5] This light-fluid analogy shares the same probabilistic nature. The polarization pattern formation process is based on multiple wave mixing occurring among the parametric instability (PI) sidebands [18,19,20]
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