Mainz 2017 – scientific programme

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Q: Fachverband Quantenoptik und Photonik

Q 36: Photonics I

Q 36.5: Talk

Wednesday, March 8, 2017, 15:45–16:00, P 11

The Akhmediev Breather in the presence of loss — •Alexander Hause, Christoph Mahnke, and Fedor Mitschke — Universität Rostock, Institut für Physik, Albert-Einstein-Str. 23, 18059 Rostock

Light propagation in optical fibers is described by the nonlinear Schrödinger equation. A type of solution known as Akhmediev Breather receives much attention recently. It describes a cw background wave on top of which a perturbation waxes and wanes; at its culmination point it forms a periodic sequence of pulses. In realistic situations, the growth-and-decay undergoes periodic recurrence; this has been described in terms of the Fermi-Pasta-Ulam phenomenon [1].

If for realism we introduce (localized) loss (or gain) we find an expression for the recurrence period, and a peculiar behavior: The recurrence pattern phase-shifts by π if there is loss; for gain it remains unshifted. Recently researchers have discovered a similar phase shift in corresponding experiments in a lossy wave tank [2]. However, the Nonlinear Schrödinger equation is integrable and does not describe a lossy channel. We are looking for a comprehensive description of these phenomena. Surely, such description must, in the low-power limit, reproduce the Temporal Talbot effect [3] which has the same phase reversal.

[1] S. A. Chin et al., Phys. Rev. E 92, 063202 (2015)

[2] O. Kimmoun et al., ArXiv 1602.01604v1 (2016)

[3] U. Morgner, FM, Optics & Photonics News 9, 45 (1998)