title: Nonlinearity management in optics: experiment, theory, and simulation.
abstract: We conduct an experimental investigation of nonlinearity management in optics using femtosecond pulses and layered Kerr media consisting of glass and air. By examining the propagation properties over several diffraction lengths, we show that wave collapse can be prevented. We corroborate these experimental results with numerical simulations of the (2+1)-dimensional focusing cubic nonlinear Schrödinger equation with piecewise constant coefficients and a theoretical analysis of this setting using a moment method.
authors.affiliation: Department of Electrical Engineering, California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, California 91125, USA and Center for the Physics of Information, California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, California 91125, USA.
authors.forename: Martin
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Centurion
authors.forename: Mason A
authors.initials: MA
authors.lastname: Porter
authors.forename: P G
authors.initials: PG
authors.lastname: Kevrekidis
authors.forename: Demetri
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Psaltis