Shock waves in disordered media.
We experimentally investigate the interplay between spatial shock waves and the degree of disorder during nonlinear optical propagation in a thermal defocusing medium. We characterize the way the shock point is affected by the amount of disorder and scales with wave amplitude. Evidence for the existence of a phase diagram in terms of nonlinearity and amount of randomness is reported. The results are in quantitative agreement with a theoretical approach based on the hydrodynamic approximation.
IPCF-CNR, Dipartimento di Fisica-Università La Sapienza, PA. Moro 2, 00185 Roma, Italy. neda.ghofraniha@roma1.infn.it
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N
Ghofraniha
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S
Gentilini
V
V
Folli
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E
Delre
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C
Conti