Rogue events in complex linear and nonlinear photonic media

TL;DR

This paper investigates optical rogue waves in complex media, demonstrating that they originate from linear scattering processes and are unaffected by nonlinearity until filamentation effects dominate.

Contribution

It provides evidence that optical rogue waves in strongly scattering media are primarily due to linear processes, challenging the notion that nonlinearity is essential for their formation.

Findings

RWs depend solely on scattering properties in the linear regime

Nonlinearity does not alter RW statistics initially

Filamentation destroys RW statistics at high nonlinearity

Abstract

Ocean rogue waves (RW) -huge solitary waves- have for long triggered the interest of scientists. RWs emerge in a complex environment and it is still dubious the importance of linear versus nonlinear processes. Recent works have demonstrated that RWs appear in various other physical systems such as microwaves, nonlinear crystals, cold atoms, etc. In this work we investigate optical wave propagation in strongly scattering random lattices embedded in the bulk of transparent glasses. In the linear regime we observe the appearance of RWs that depend solely on the scattering properties of the medium. Interestingly, the addition of nonlinearity does not modify the RW statistics, while as the nonlinearities are increased multiple-filamentation and intensity clamping destroy the RW statistics. Numerical simulations agree nicely with the experimental findings and altogether prove that optical rogue waves are generated through the linear strong scattering in such complex environments.