Observation of migrating transverse Anderson localizations of light in nonlocal media

TL;DR

This paper reports the experimental observation of how nonlocal thermal nonlinearities influence and induce interactions among localized light modes in a disordered 2D optical fiber, revealing collective behavior and mode migration.

Contribution

First experimental demonstration of nonlocal nonlinear effects on transverse Anderson localized modes in a disordered optical system.

Findings

Nonlocal thermal nonlinear response alters localization length.

Localized modes exhibit attraction and spatial migration.

Evidence of collective and strongly interacting localized modes.

Abstract

We report the experimental observation of the interaction and attraction of many localized modes in a two dimensional (2D) system realized by a disordered optical fiber supporting transverse Anderson localization. We show that a nonlocal optically nonlinear response of thermal origin alters the localization length by an amount determined by the optical power and also induces an action at a distance between the localized modes and their spatial migration. Evidence of a collective and strongly interacting regime is given.