Beam Instabilities in the Scale Free Regime

TL;DR

This paper investigates beam instabilities in a one-dimensional photorefractive system, revealing power-independent defocusing and fragmenting instabilities that differ from traditional spatial modulational instability.

Contribution

It introduces a scale-free model showing novel power-independent beam instabilities, contrasting with known spatial modulational instability behaviors.

Findings

Identifies defocusing and fragmenting instabilities in the scale-free regime

These instabilities are independent of beam power

They are not linked to specific periodic patterns

Abstract

The instabilities arising in a one-dimensional beam sustained by the diffusive photorefractive nonlinearity in out-of-equilibrium ferroelectrics are theoretically and numerically investigated. In the "scale-free model", in striking contrast with the well-known spatial modulational instability, two different beam instabilities dominate: a defocusing and a fragmenting process. Both are independent of the beam power and are not associated to any specific periodic pattern.