Abstract

Initiated first in the context of oceanography, the notion of rogue waves (RW) covers unexpected waves of extreme amplitude that are held responsible for lots of maritime disasters. The major challenge for scientific research worldwide is to progress in the prediction of these extreme events. The analogy with nonlinear optics greatly helps in developing useful experimental tools to progress in the understanding of RW phenomena [1]. Recent reports have placed a special emphasis on the role of dissipative systems as to drive instabilities generating extreme pulses, reminding us that natural physical systems are inherently dissipative. In that respect, the laser cavity is becoming a paradigmatic rogue wave generator [2-6].

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