Abstract

Modulation instability (MI) is a universal phenomenon describing the nonlinear evolution of a periodic modulation superimposed on a plane wave background [1]. In an optical fiber context, MI manifests through the break-up of a continuous wave (CW) field into a train of ultrashort pulses and has been extensively studied in the context of high-repetition rate pulse train generation. In the absence of a distinct periodic modulation, MI may be spontaneously triggered through the amplification of input laser noise. While such signal deterioration is an obvious nuisance in e.g. telecommunication applications, this spontaneous MI is well known to initiate the generation of broad supercontinuum (SC) spectra in the long pulse regime. The usual approach in describing MI consists of conducting a linear stability analysis on a steady-state CW field and although such an analysis does provide useful insight in determining the gain spectrum of MI, recent studies have shown that a broad range of MI related phenomena can be more conveniently described in terms of exact analytical solutions of the nonlinear Schrödinger equation known as Akhmediev breathers (AB) [2-4].

© 2011 IEEE