Optical tsunamis: shoaling of shallow water rogue waves in nonlinear fibers with normal dispersion

TL;DR

This paper explores how optical pulses in fibers can form extreme wave events similar to ocean tsunamis, using mathematical solutions and numerical simulations to understand their formation and potential for generation in tapered fibers.

Contribution

It introduces exact Riemann wave solutions for optical shallow water equations and demonstrates their agreement with nonlinear Schrödinger equation simulations, revealing conditions for optical tsunami formation.

Findings

Optical tsunamis can form in normal dispersion fibers.

Exact Riemann solutions match numerical simulations.

Higher-order dispersion can generate extreme optical waves.

Abstract

In analogy with ocean waves running up towards the beach, shoaling of prechirped optical pulses may occur in the normal group-velocity dispersion regime of optical fibers. We present exact Riemann wave solutions of the optical shallow water equations and show that they agree remarkably well with the numerical solutions of the nonlinear Schr\"odinger equation, at least up to the point where a vertical pulse front develops. We also reveal that extreme wave events or optical tsunamis may be generated in dispersion tapered fibers in the presence of higher-order dispersion.