Competing Turing and Faraday instabilities in longitudinally modulated passive resonators

TL;DR

This paper experimentally explores how Turing and Faraday instabilities interact in a nonlinear resonator, revealing new switching behaviors and structural crossovers influenced by dispersion modulation.

Contribution

It demonstrates the first experimental investigation of the interplay between Turing and Faraday instabilities in a bistable passive resonator, with insights explained by the Lugiato-Lefever model.

Findings

Switching between stable branches influenced by instability competition

Observation of crossover between Turing and Faraday structures

Validation of results through the Lugiato-Lefever model

Abstract

We experimentally investigate the interplay of Turing and Faraday (modulational) instabilities in a bistable passive nonlinear resonator. The Faraday branch is induced via parametric resonance owing to a periodic modulation of the resonator dispersion. We show that the bistable switching dynamics is dramatically affected by the competition between the two instability mechanisms, which dictates two completely novel scenarios. At low detunings from resonance switching occurs between the stable stationary lower branch and the Faraday-unstable upper branch, whereas at high detunings we observe the crossover between the Turing and Faraday periodic structures. The results are well explained in terms of the universal Lugiato-Lefever model.