Turbulent Transitions in Optical Wave Propagation.
We report the direct observation of the onset of turbulence in propagating one-dimensional optical waves. The transition occurs as the disordered hosting material passes from being linear to one with extreme nonlinearity. As the response grows, increased wave interaction causes a modulational unstable quasihomogeneous flow to be superseded by a chaotic and spatially incoherent one. Statistical analysis of high-resolution wave behavior in the turbulent regime unveils the emergence of concomitant rogue waves. The transition, observed in a photorefractive ferroelectric crystal, introduces a new and rich experimental setting for the study of optical wave turbulence and information transport in conditions dominated by large fluctuations and extreme nonlinearity.
Dipartimento di Fisica, Università di Roma "La Sapienza," 00185 Rome, Italy.
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Pierangeli
Dipartimento di Fisica, Università di Roma "La Sapienza," 00185 Rome, Italy.
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Di Mei
Dipartimento di Fisica, Università di Roma "La Sapienza," 00185 Rome, Italy.|Center for Life Nano Science@Sapienza, Istituto Italiano di Tecnologia, 00161 Rome, Italy.
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Di Domenico
Applied Physics Department, Hebrew University of Jerusalem, 91904 Jerusalem, Israel.
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Agranat
Dipartimento di Fisica, Università di Roma "La Sapienza," 00185 Rome, Italy.|ISC-CNR, Università di Roma "La Sapienza," 00185 Rome, Italy.
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Conti
Dipartimento di Fisica, Università di Roma "La Sapienza," 00185 Rome, Italy.
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