Intrinsic beam shaping mechanism in spatially modulated broad area semiconductor amplifiers

Postprint (published version

Filamentation processes and dynamical excitation of light condensates in optical media with competing nonlinearities

We analyze both theoretically and by means of numerical simulations the phenomena of filamentation and dynamical formation of self-guided nonlinear waves in media featuring competing cubic and quintic nonlinearities. We provide a theoretical description of recent experiments in terms of a linear stability analysis supported with simulations, showing the possibility of experimental observation of the modulational instability suppression of intense light pulses travelling across such nonlinear media. We also show a novel mechanism of indirect excitation of {\em light condensates} by means of coalescence processes of nonlinear coherent structures produced by managed filamentation of high power laser beams.Comment: 6 pages, 4 figure

Characteristics of silent countingin synchronized swimmers

This article describes the temporal characteristics of silent counting as used duringa competition by the Russian youth team of synchronized swimmers. Theathletes listened to the music that accompanied their performance at the competition.Diff erent indices of silent counting were defi ned, such as the beginningand cessation of diff erent periods of counting, counting frequency, the stabilityof the temporal structure of silent counting, the degree of synchronization of silentcounting at diff erent moments during the sports program. We studied therelationship of these characteristics of counting with expert estimates of the athletes’sense of tempo, coordination of movements, and choreographic abilities

Band structure of magnetic excitations in the vortex phase of a ferromagnetic superconductor

International audienceMagnetic excitations in a ferromagnetic superconductor in the presence of an Abrikosov vortex lattice have been studied using the phenomenological London and Landau-Lifshitz equations. Due to the periodicity of the vortex field the magnon spectrum has a band structure, similar to the structure of the electon spectrum in a crystal lattice. The gaps between adjacent bands have been calculated using an analog of the weak-binding approximation. When the applied magnetic field is altered the band structure undergoes a qualitative transformation due to commensurability effects, connected with the nonmonotonicity of the magnon spectrum in the Meissner state. In dirty samples the energy gaps may be smeared out because of the dissipation connected with vortex motion. In sufficiently clean samples the gaps manifest themselves as maxima in the frequency dependence of the microwave reflectivity coefficient

Modulational instability in nonlocal Kerr-type media with random parameters

Modulational instability of continuous waves in nonlocal focusing and defocusing Kerr media with stochastically varying diffraction (dispersion) and nonlinearity coefficients is studied both analytically and numerically. It is shown that nonlocality with the sign-definite Fourier images of the medium response functions suppresses considerably the growth rate peak and bandwidth of instability caused by stochasticity. Contrary, nonlocality can enhance modulational instability growth for a response function with negative-sign bands.Comment: 6 pages, 12 figures, revTeX, to appear in Phys. Rev.

Two dimensional modulational instability in photorefractive media

We study theoretically and experimentally the modulational instability of broad optical beams in photorefractive nonlinear media. We demonstrate the impact of the anisotropy of the nonlinearity on the growth rate of periodic perturbations. Our findings are confirmed by experimental measurements in a strontium barium niobate photorefractive crystal.Comment: 8 figure

Pattern generation by dissipative parametric instability

Nonlinear instabilities are responsible for spontaneous pattern formation in a vast number of natural and engineered systems, ranging from biology to galaxy buildup. We propose a new instability mechanism leading to pattern formation in spatially extended nonlinear systems, which is based on a periodic antiphase modulation of spectrally dependent losses arranged in a zigzag way: an effective filtering is imposed at symmetrically located wave numbers k and -k in alternating order. The properties of the dissipative parametric instability differ from the features of both key classical concepts of modulation instabilities, i.e., the Benjamin-Feir instability and the Faraday instabiltyity. We demonstrate how the dissipative parametric instability can lead to the formation of stable patterns in one- and two-dimensional systems. The proposed instability mechanism is generic and can naturally occur or can be implemented in various physical systems

Laser beam filamentation in fractal aggregates

We investigate filamentation of a cw laser beam in soft matter such as colloidal suspensions and fractal gels. The process, driven by electrostriction, is strongly affected by material properties, which are taken into account via the static structure factor, and have impact on the statistics of the light filaments.Comment: 4 pages, 5 figures. Revised version with corrected figure 5. To be published in Phys. Rev. Let