Spatio-temporal observation of higher-order modulation instability in a recirculating fiber loop

TL;DR

This paper experimentally studies higher-order modulation instability in a recirculating fiber loop, revealing deterministic spatio-temporal dynamics and transitions between coherent and noise-driven states through statistical analysis.

Contribution

It introduces a recirculating fiber loop setup to observe and analyze higher-order modulation instability dynamics in a single shot, highlighting the transition between different dynamical regimes.

Findings

Observation of deterministic spatio-temporal evolution

Transition between coherent and noise-driven dynamics

Statistical characterization of modulation instability

Abstract

We experimentaly investigate higher-order seeded modulation instability in an optical fiber experiment. The recirculating loop configuration with round-trip losses compensation enables the observation in single-shot of the spatio-temporal evolution of an initially modulated continuous field revealing intricate yet deterministic dynamics. By tuning the modulation period, a continuous transition between perfectly coherent and purely noise-driven dynamics is observed that we characterise by means of a statistical study.