Space–time evolution of optical breathers and modulation instability patterns in metamaterial waveguides

Abstract

We present numerical and theoretical investigations of the spontaneous emergence of noise-driven modulation instability patterns in a metamaterial waveguide, which involves the generation of optical breather waves such as the Peregrine soliton, Akhmediev breathers and Kuznetsov–Ma breathers. We show that the intrinsic properties of the metamaterial waveguide, e.g. self-steepening and the magnetooptic effects, offer the potential to control the formation and subsequent spectral and temporal dynamics of these localized nonlinear waves. Such internal or external perturbations break the symmetry of the spectrum of nonlinear waves, thus leading to the existence of a controllable characteristic group velocity in their space–time evolution.