Abstract
Modulation instability (MI) is a ubiquitous process in which a weak field is exponentially amplified through a balance between dispersive and nonlinear effects. In single-mode scalar optical fibers, the positive Kerr nonlinearity phase-mismatch can be compensated by anomalous second-order dispersion, a process known as MI2. But phase-matched solutions can also exist in normal second-order dispersion region, thanks to negative even higher-order terms [1]. This process, that we label MI4, gives rise to a pair of narrow sidebands widely detuned far from the pump. MI may grow spontaneously from broadband noise and is usually the main process involved in the early stages of most supercontinuum (SC) generation. Because of its stochastic nature, MI creates strong fluctuations of spectral power, especially near the SC edges. In the time domain, these fluctuations manifest as so-called optical rogue waves, both in the MI2 [2] and MI4 [3] cases. Active methods based on stimulating the MI2 process have already been proposed [4]. However, in the configuration based on MI4, no experiments or numerical works have focused on the study of fluctuations and their reduction.
© 2013 IEEE
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