Nonlinear transverse standing spin wave modes of a magnetic film.

We derive an asymptotic model for wave propagation across a ferromagnetic film, neglecting anisotropy and damping, close to the ferromagnetic resonance. The resulting model is a nonlinear Schrödinger equation, which can be either focusing or defocussing, depending on the magnitude and direction of the external magnetic field. We use it to compute the nonlinear eigenmodes of standing spin waves, that can be excited in the film; the eigenmodes can be expressed using Jacobi's elliptic functions. It is shown that their frequency spectrum varies with the amplitude of the modes.

Asymptotic dynamics of three-dimensional bipolar ultrashort electromagnetic pulses in an array of semiconductor carbon nanotubes.

We study the propagation of three-dimensional bipolar ultrashort electromagnetic pulses in an array of semiconductor carbon nanotubes at times much longer than the pulse duration, yet still shorter than the relaxation time in the system. The interaction of the electromagnetic field with the electronic subsystem of the medium is described by means of Maxwell's equations, taking into account the field inhomogeneity along the nanotube axis beyond the approximation of slowly varying amplitudes and phases. A model is proposed for the analysis of the dynamics of an electromagnetic pulse in the form of an effective equation for the vector potential of the field. Our numerical analysis demonstrates the possibility of a satisfactory description of the evolution of the pulse field at large times by means of a three-dimensional generalization of the sine-Gordon and double sine-Gordon equations.

Brillouin scattering-induced rogue waves in self-pulsing fiber lasers.

We report the experimental observation of extreme instabilities in a self-pulsing fiber laser under the influence of stimulated Brillouin scattering (SBS). Specifically, we observe temporally localized structures with high intensities that can be referred to as rogue events through their statistical behaviour with highly-skewed intensity distributions. The emergence of these SBS-induced rogue waves is attributed to the interplay between laser operation and resonant Stokes orders. As this behaviour is not accounted for by existing models, we also present numerical simulations showing that such instabilities can be observed in chaotic laser operation. This study opens up new possibilities towards harnessing extreme events in highly-dissipative systems through adapted laser cavity configurations.

Nonlinear characterization of materials using the D4σ method inside a Z-scan 4f-system.

We show that direct measurement of the beam radius in Z-scan experiments using a CCD camera at the output of a 4f-imaging system allows higher sensitivity and better accuracy than Baryscan. One of the advantages is to be insensitive to pointing instability of pulsed lasers because no hard (physical) aperture is employed as in the usual Z-scan. In addition, the numerical calculations involved here and the measurement of the beam radius are simplified since we do not measure the transmittance through an aperture and it is not subject to mathematical artifacts related to a normalization process, especially when the diffracted light intensity is very low.

Robust two-dimensional spatial solitons in liquid carbon disulfide.

The excitation of near-infrared (2+1)D solitons in liquid carbon disulfide is demonstrated due to the simultaneous contribution of the third- and fifth-order susceptibilities. Solitons propagating free from diffraction for more than 10 Rayleigh lengths although damped, were observed to support the proposed soliton behavior. Numerical calculations using a nonlinear Schrödinger-type equation were also performed.

Pattern formation by kicked solitons in the two-dimensional Ginzburg-Landau medium with a transverse grating.

We consider the kick- (tilt-) induced mobility of two-dimensional (2D) fundamental dissipative solitons in models of bulk lasing media based on the 2D complex Ginzburg-Landau equation including a spatially periodic potential (transverse grating). The depinning threshold, which depends on the orientation of the kick, is identified by means of systematic simulations and estimated by means of an analytical approximation. Various pattern-formation scenarios are found above the threshold. Most typically, the soliton, hopping between potential cells, leaves arrayed patterns of different sizes in its wake. In the single-pass-amplifier setup, this effect may be used as a mechanism for the selective pattern formation controlled by the tilt of the input beam. Freely moving solitons feature two distinct values of the established velocity. Elastic and inelastic collisions between free solitons and pinned arrayed patterns are studied too.

Passive harmonic mode locking of soliton crystals.

We report experimental observation of passive harmonic mode locking (HML) in which the basic pattern is a soliton crystal. Several crystal states were generated from an initial large bound state by increasing the pump power. The soliton crystals are identical and progressively span along the cavity to finally take a regular spacing leading to HML of solitons crystal.

Intricate solitons state in passively mode-locked fiber lasers.

We report a novel spontaneous soliton pattern formation in a figure-of-eight passively mode-locked erbium-doped double-clad fiber laser. It consists in a condensate phase in which there is almost periodic arrangement of alternate crystal and liquid soliton phases. Thanks to an adapted ansatz for the electric field, we perform a reconstruction allowing to clearly identify the soliton distribution along the cavity.

Universal soliton pattern formations in passively mode-locked fiber lasers.

We investigate multiple-soliton pattern formations in a figure-of-eight passively mode-locked fiber laser. Operation in the anomalous dispersion regime with a double-clad fiber amplifier allows generation of up to several hundreds of solitons per round trip. We report the observation of remarkable soliton distributions: soliton gas, soliton liquid, soliton polycrystal, and soliton crystal, thus indicating the universality of such complexes.

Coherent soliton pattern formation in a fiber laser.

We report the observation of bound states of 350 pulses in a ring fiber laser mode locked by nonlinear rotation of the polarization. The phenomenon is described theoretically using a multiscale approach to the gain dynamics; the fast evolution of a small excess of gain is responsible for the stabilization of a periodic pattern, while the slow evolution of the mean value of gain explains the finite length of the quasiperiodic soliton train.

Three-dimensional vortex solitons in quasi-two-dimensional lattices.

We consider the three-dimensional (3D) Gross-Pitaevskii or nonlinear Schrödinger equation with a quasi-2D square-lattice potential (which corresponds to the optical lattice trapping a self-attractive Bose-Einstein condensate, or, in some approximation, to a photonic-crystal fiber, in terms of nonlinear optics). Stable 3D solitons, with embedded vorticity S=1 and 2, are found by means of the variational approximation and in a numerical form. They are built, basically, as sets of four fundamental solitons forming a rhombus, with phase shifts piS2 between adjacent sites, and an empty site in the middle. The results demonstrate two species of stable 3D solitons, which were not studied before, viz., localized vortices ("spinning light bullets," in terms of optics) with S>1 , and vortex solitons (with any S not equal 0 ) supported by a lattice in the 3D space. Typical scenarios of instability development (collapse or decay) of unstable localized vortices are identified too.

Refractive-index saturation-mediated multiple line emission in polymer thin-film distributed-feedback lasers.

We report experimental and theoretical investigations of multiple laser-line emission in a distributed-feedback dye laser pumped by two coherent optical beams. We have used a Lloyd interferometer configuration with second- and third-order Bragg reflections to study the interaction between the two incident pumps in an organic thin film. We demonstrated theoretically that the number of laser emission lines can be interpreted with reference to the saturation effect in the refractive index.

Quasistable two-dimensional solitons with hidden and explicit vorticity in a medium with competing nonlinearities.

We consider basic types of two-dimensional (2D) vortex solitons in a three-wave model combining quadratic chi((2)) and self-defocusing cubic chi((3))(-) nonlinearities. The system involves two fundamental-frequency (FF) waves with orthogonal polarizations and a single second-harmonic (SH) one. The model makes it possible to introduce a 2D soliton, with hidden vorticity (HV). Its vorticities in the two FF components are S(1,2) = +/-1 , whereas the SH carries no vorticity, S(3) = 0 . We also consider an ordinary compound vortex, with 2S(1) = 2S(2) = S(3) = 2 . Without the chi((3))(-) terms, the HV soliton and the ordinary vortex are moderately unstable. Within the propagation distance z approximately 15 diffraction lengths, Z(diffr), the former one turns itself into a usual zero-vorticity (ZV) soliton, while the latter splits into three ZV solitons (the splinters form a necklace pattern, with its own intrinsic dynamics). To gain analytical insight into the azimuthal instability of the HV solitons, we also consider its one-dimensional counterpart, viz., the modulational instability (MI) of a one-dimensional CW (continuous-wave) state with "hidden momentum," i.e., opposite wave numbers in its two components, concluding that such wave numbers may partly suppress the MI. As concerns analytical results, we also find exact solutions for spreading localized vortices in the 2D linear model; in terms of quantum mechanics, these are coherent states with angular momentum (we need these solutions to accurately define the diffraction length of the true solitons). The addition of the chi((3))(-) interaction strongly stabilizes both the HV solitons and the ordinary vortices, helping them to persist over z up to 50 Z(diffr). In terms of the possible experiment, they are completely stable objects. After very long propagation, the HV soliton splits into two ZV solitons, while the vortex with S(3) = 2S(1,2) = 2 splits into a set of three or four ZV solitons.